Big Jak, Lil Jak
by M-Angel 05
Summary: This is an AU Jak story sortta inspired by lady-darkstreak. What if after Jak had killed Kor that Mar never went back right then and there. What if Jak decided he was going to protect his younger self from the horrors of the future and what kind of future would bring?
1. Chapter 1: Battle

**Chapter 1**: _Battle_

* * *

Darkness, it seemed to be everywhere these days. The once beautiful landscape that had been filled with jungles, villages, and precursor _junk_, as Daxter once had called them. Jak felt the beast within himself. It wasn't as bad as it had once been all those months ago when Daxter had saved him and gotten him out of the Baron's prison. Back then the darkness had been eating his very soul. He had felt empty every time he couldn't control the beast within. He was certain that one day he'd go _dark_, as Daxter called it, and would not come back and if he did he would have killed everybody around himself; this of course included all of his friends. He was certain that one day he'd wake up from one of his nightmares and see that he'd have bloodstained orange and white fur on himself and find Daxter's body torn to bits; his body lifeless and eyes staring into the abyss. However none of that had happened. Keria and Samos may be apprehensive about being around him, but Daxter never was and for some unknown reason neither was the kid. That one child, who never ran from him, never screamed in fear and never seemed to judge him. To the little boy Jak was a friend, somebody who would protect him and keep the Baron's guards away from him. Jak couldn't understand why the child wasn't afraid of him, except that the boy didn't know how to fear him, but even that seemed highly illogical.

After the Tomb of Mar had been found and Praxis had gotten the Precursor Stone, Jak had gone back to the underground HQ hoping to find out how the Baron knew they were so close to taking the stone, only to hear from Torn that it had been him that had told Praxis because Ashelin's life had been on the line. It would seem that even the Baron's daughter wasn't exempt from her father's murderous rage. Once he and Daxter had gotten the underground members out of prison, plus a much older Samos, he had found that the boy; the heir of Haven City, was also missing. A piece of his very soul cracked at whatever horror that child was going through by the hands of Baron Praxis. He had redoubled his efforts in toppling the Baron, ignoring Daxter's pleas when he looked to be about to crash.

Exhaustion eventually won out. When he'd come to he found himself and a sleeping Daxter in the oracle house in the Water Slums. The oracle had helped him regain a piece of himself by helping him to learn how to control the dark beast inside. Once he had left, _Dark,_ felt far away.

Then the metal head's had attacked the city, which brought the young hero to the present. Kor had lied. He and the underground members had been tricked by the old man façade. It turned out that Kor had been manipulating the underground leaders for years and now with the shield wall down, he could do with this city whatever he wanted.

Now with Praxis dead, the Precursor Stone in hand, Jak and Daxter went on one last mission; to kill Kor.

* * *

The elevator carried the two best friends upwards, and the elf looked out as they rose hundreds of feet into the air. Daxter, merely looked down, before gulping and clung to Jak's shoulder pad even harder than before. Still, he tried to look on the bright side, in the event that he did fall, at least there was no Dark Eco to fall into this time around and he wouldn't suffer for very long before he'd die. His thoughts were interrupted as the lift suddenly came to a halt with a lurch.

Jak then stepped off the elevator and onto a catwalk and quickly located what appeared to be a covered control console of some sort. He walked over to the controls, and typed a few commands in on the keyboard that was sheltered and out of the elements. The screen suddenly blazed to life, and several Precursorean runes flashed on it. Instantly, Jak translated the script. It was telling him to insert a power source. Upon locating a likely slot, withdrew and inserted the Precursor Stone into it. It shined for a brief moment, before turning a bright green color. Jak backed away, afraid for a moment that he had done something wrong. However, as the massive cannon hummed and more things on it started flashing, he realized that it was ready to fire.

Suddenly Jak heard an explosion off in the distance and realized that it was coming from Haven City. He prayed to whatever deity out that they'd protect Keira, Samos and even the lurker Brutter, but knowing that he really couldn't do much to help them from way out here, he turned his attention back to the control console, whose screen now showed exactly where the gun was aiming. Jak made a few minor corrections, and then smiled wickedly to himself.

"Stone…Gun…Nest." He growled, pressing the large button clearly marked _Fire_.

"Ha, ha, light er up, padre!" Daxter said, rubbing his hands together as he leaned forward on his perch on Jak's shoulder.

"HA! HA! HA! Eat this!" Jak laughed maniacally as the gun shot a huge green beam into the nest, drilling a path.

"That ought to wake 'em up!" The Ottsel grinned.

"Let's go take care of business!" The dark elf said a smile could be seen on his lips, though not for the first time since coming to the nest.

"What? You mean, go in there? Ahh, I'm right behind you!" Daxter gulped nervously as they began to descend on the lift.

* * *

For a while there was silence as the duo made their way to the metal head leader. The silence was disrupted by the roar of Metal Heads inside the nest; Jak immediately loaded his guns once again with several clips. They had easily made their way through the nest, leaving behind them a trail of dead Metal Head bodies. Jak was beginning to sweat as his muscles worked to keep them moving, shooting any Metal Head in sight. Jak could feel _Dark_ inside him, demanding to be let out so he could feel the blood of the Metal Heads on his claws, but Jak pushed him aside with one word, _No_. he thought to the beast inside of him. He had a plan and in order for that plan to go accordingly he needed _Dark_ to be at full strength. Finally they made it to a large, round area with a large, round pit in the middle, on the other side of the area, they saw the Rift Ring.

"Finally, you've decided to join us and you bought the Precursor Stone. Good." Kor appeared above the round pit and to Jak's surprise the little boy was alive, and seemed to asleep within an orb-like device. "The boy will now play his final part."

"Not this time," Jak growled his anger beginning to show. He was tired of people using this child. They had no right to do this to this kid, this innocent child.

"Oh, but this child is such a part of this! Such a part of you! Don't you recognize him?" The Metal Head laughed, "The boy is you, Jak! And this place... this is where you began, in the future!" Daxter gasped and noticed the similarities between the boy and Jak.

"But how...?" The dark elf growled.

"You were hidden in the past on the hope that you would gain the skills to face me today. But Onin was wrong!" Kor roared, "Now that you've been altered with dark eco, the stone will never open for you. Your younger self, however, still has the pure gift! He alone can awaken the Stone and the Precursor entity, which sleeps inside!"

"This stone is a Precursor?" Jak looked at the stone in his hand.

"The last Precursor egg! Mar was clever," the Metal Head lead hissed, "he covered his tracks well through time, hiding the last Precurosor egg from me, and building the shield and city to defend it! It has been a long siege. But today, I will finally feed on the last Precursor Life Force!"

"Ah, I think you're forgetting one little thing, Metalo-Maniac!" Daxter snorted, "_**We've**_ got the Precursor Stone!"

"Not for long!" Kor roared as he charged up and launched an energy blast at them, hitting the ceiling above them and making the rocks fall onto them. The Metal Head watched the pile of rubble and growled when _Dark_ burst out of the debris with the ottsel held in his protective arms. He set Daxter down and gave off his own howl as he was forced to let Jak take control.

Activating the peacemaker Jak shot at Kor, just as the Metal Head Leader had laid a dozen eggs. Jak watched in horror as those eggs began to hatch even as their leader screamed in pain from the electric charge of the peacemaker. Switching mods Jak began showing with the valcan mod, the machine gun like mod tore through the carapaces of the drones. As soon as the last one was dead Jak refocused back onto Kor, who had began producing more eggs and threw them down into the pit and onto the other side of the pit. Jak kept the vulcan mod on and began shooting at Kor until suddenly a bunch of the straps holding the metal head leader up suddenly snapped, causing Kor to roar in anger as he tried to right himself.

The Kor snarled in wounded pride, before throwing out a channeled attack of his own, Yellow Eco mixed with dark eco crackling over his taloned hands before he unleashed it upon Jak with a roar. The dark elf kicked it into overdrive, moving like a blur to get out of the blast range of the attack, which took out a good chunk of Kor's home. Jak was finally beginning to understand one thing though, Kor was far tougher than he had anticipated, and he was at last starting to realize how this guy had made a career out of finishing off one of the most powerful races in the universe. If the Precursors couldn't kill of this guy, what made him think he could?

Kor, on the other hand, was mildly impressed by the fight that Jak was putting up, and it seemed as though for the first time in centuries, he was actually going to be in a battle long enough for his adrenaline to get pumping. Still, he had every reason to believe that he was going to win this conflict. After all, he had never lost before, and he saw no reason why that should suddenly change. Kor gave a ferocious smile as Jak's ears suddenly picked up the sounds of a mechanical whirling sound.

Jak's eyes left Kor for a split second and his eyes widened as a dozen winged grunts and grunts using mechanical devices to fly began to take up formation. _Okay_. he thought towards the beast. _Your turn_. In an electrical storm of dark eco the beast came up from the deepest part of Jak's soul and took control. Once golden green hair, now was long and white. Skin that had been licked by the sun and turned a nice tan color now looked deathly pale. Finishing off the transformation claws as sharp as swords spouted where fingernails had once been, twin horns forced their way out of Jak's skull and twin dark orbs look out at its enemy with glee. A ferocious smile formed on its face revealing fangs long enough to pierce skin and do a healthy amount of damage.

Dark eco, in the form of lightning began to bounce across the walls and damage Kor's home, but not just damage the metal head leader's home, but also kill all of the flying, natural or mechanical, metal heads. Drones on the ground rushed at the monster that had come from the dark elf. Taking no mercy the creature began attacking everything and everything in sight.

Unbeknownst to Jak, during _Dark's_ lightning blasts a large piece of the wall had fallen onto the orb that had the little boy in it. It had abruptly popped, causing the child inside to suddenly fall onto the dirty grungy ground that made up the metal head leaders home. Fear overtook the child for a moment at the being abruptly awaken, until he saw _Dark_. The moment he saw the creature his fear vanished and was replaced with curiosity as he spotted that orange creature that always accompanied his friend Jak. Looking around he didn't spot Jak, just the dark creature and the orange creature. _'Maybe he's somewhere else and these guys are helping._ He suddenly thought and ran over to the orange creature and hid where the creature was hiding.

Daxter gave a suddenly yelp as two tiny hands went around him and pulled him closer. Turning his head he spotted the little boy. "Err…hey lil Jak." He joked.

A howl from _Dark_ brought both Daxters and lil Jak's attention to the battle in front of them. _Dark_ had heard Daxters yelp and had thought a metal head had gotten him. Because of the distraction a rather large metal head had come up behind him and had attacked him. Three long lines that went sideways went across his back. Blood seeping into the blue material of the tunic that Jak wore were able to be seen from where Daxter was. A grunt had taken the time as well to attack Jak's right leg and Kor's stinger slashed at his right arm. Daxter's ears went flat against his head.

_Dark_ was pissed now. Jumping upwards into the air, thus knocking the remaining metal heads away from him, he gathered dark eco into his hands and flipped backwards and fell downwards to the ground. Daxter pushed lil Jak down onto his back and jumped onto the child's body covering it with his own as _Dark_ landed with the dark bomb. The shockwave killed all of the metal heads in the area, leaving Kor panting. The metal head leader roared once again. Kor was tired of this cat and mouse game and jumped from the sling he was in, causing parts of the ceiling to fall in his wake.

However, that last attack had been the last of _Dark's _energy causing Jak to groan as he was brought back into the battle scene. Kor, thinking Jak was currently weak, went to plunge his stinger into Jak's stomach. _**Behind you!**_ Jak heard _Dark's_ voice in his mind. Dodging left he narrowly escaped death once again. Getting back to his feet Jak activated his hoverboard and flew off to the other side, away from Kor. Kor gave chase and after a few moments Kor stopped and gave another channeled attack, this one was nothing but pure dark eco made into a shockwave. Deactating the hoverboard Jak then jumped the attack and grabbed his gun, switched it to peacemaker mod and saw that he had three shots left on this mod. He lifted the gun and as Kor made a dash towards him, he let the energy fly off towards Kor, which hit the metal head leader in the face, causing the creature to howl in pain, but not deterred off from his enemy Kor ran towards Jak, which Jak took off once again on his board and got to the other side of the room. Once there Jak let another blast go from the peacemaker, this one cause Kor to get angrier and ignoring his pain he rushed at Jak. Dashing off on foot Jak narrowly missed another swipe from Kor's claws. Turning he let lose the final peacemaker blast; but missed.

Cursing Jak threw his board down and flew across the hole in the center of the room. He switched through his mods and found that his vulcan only had a few shots left, while his blaster was still completely full. Turning his head he saw Kor once again charging up another yellow and dark eco attack. Being quick on his feet, he dodged the blasts, and then began shooting with his blaster at the bastard.

In minutes Kor fell down into a heap onto the floor. The left side of his face was smoldering from taking a peacemaker blast to the face. On the right side of his face, the eyes suddenly opened. His wings came out from their sheaths on his back and he flapped them weakly. However his depth perception had been off and instead of safely going through the rift gate, he comically hit one of the rings. The energy from the rings caused his body to explode and his head landed where Daxter and lil Jak were hiding.

Lil Jak approached the forgotten Precursor Stone and was about to touch it when Jak gabbed the little boy's wrist and stopped him. "You, don't have to touch that." He said gently causing the little boy to look at him and cock his head at Jak, before smiling up at him and run to him and hug Jak tightly. At first Jak was shocked and then it was like everything that had ever happened to him caused ever emotion to come to the surface. Pulling the child into his arms Jak began to cry and in that instant he made up his mind. Nobody was taking his younger self away from him. He would protect him. That small part of himself that was still innocent needed to remain so. He didn't care if this meant that the timeline would be broken. He didn't give a fly fuck!

Lifting his head off of Lil Jak's he looked over at Daxter who was looking at the rift gate longingly and then in an instant was no longer looking at it and smiled at Jak. "We need to keep LJ safe." He stated a matter of factly.

Jak nodded. "Yeah." He looked back at the gate and then felt _Dark's_ presence. _What_? He asked it.

_**Let me ensure no one can touch him.**_ It stated. _**I will never harm those you love.**_ In his mind he could see the creature leaning against a rock sharpening his claws against it and then looking behind him.

Looking behind himself and up a bit he saw what _Dark_ was looking at. A large bolder was dangling precariously over the rift gate. Pushing Lil Jak away he felt dark eco rising in his bloodstream, like how it did when _Dark_ took over, but instead of taking over _Dark_ forced dark eco out into Jak's hand. Jak then threw the ball of dark energy towards the bolder, which caused every rock on that wall to become lose and fall towards the Precursorean rings. Grabbing both child and Daxter, who had grabbed the Precursor Stone; Jak ran for the opening of the cavern and when they were a safe distance away, they watched as suddenly the entire mountain of the metal head nest fell inward, burying the Rift Gate forever.

Upon hearing a whirling sound Jak and Daxter saw the lurker balloon land near them. Keira had tears streaming down her cheeks; both of the Samos' looked shocked. "What happened?" said the elder of the two, he looked mostly at Jak who held his younger self protectively in his arms.

Jak frowned at the older man. "Kor crashed into the rings. There was an electrical storm and I decided to grab everyone and run for it."

The elder nodded as he looked off in the distance at the ruined Metal Head Nest. They would have to find some way to unbury the rift gate and get Jak's younger self to old Sandover Village, and soon. He turned his head towards Jak who was smiling at the little boy in his arms who was giggling as Daxter was jumping on Jak's backpack trying to put something inside of it. "Got it, Dax?" Jak asked

"Yep." The former elf said with a smile. "Think Tessie poo will believe me if I tell her I helped?" he asked as Jak made his way back over to the lurker balloon.

"I don't see why she wouldn't." Jak said with a smile on his face as he placed his smaller self on the balloon and sat down next to him. Lil Jak climb back into his arms and yawned.

Samos smiled. _There's always tomorrow._ He thought as he turned away from the nest and climbed back onto the balloon to calm Keira down and began thinking about how this might change the future.

* * *

**M-Angel**: Okay, so this story is dedicated to Lady-Darkstreak on deviantart. Her picture entitled big Jak lil Jak inspired this story. It's also the story picture. here's the link to the picture. Just backspace when you copy this 'cause I had to put spaces in between stuff. I'll also put a link on my profile incase this doesn't work.

lady - darkstreak . deviantart dot com slash art / big - Jak - lil - Jak - 442294290


	2. Chapter 2: The Change

**Chapter 2**:_ The Change_

* * *

Jak didn't know what he was expecting to happen when he kept Lil Jak or LJ; as he and Daxter had started calling him, from going through the Rift Gate, but whatever would happen, he wasn't sure if it'd be good or bad. Once they'd gotten back to Haven City, which was still on fire from the attack; though most of the weaker metal heads seemed to be dead or dying because of their leader's death, the stronger ones however seemed to be smart enough to want to live another day and simply left the burning city. The underground HQ was destroyed and with it their home. Ashelin offered the palace for Jak and company to stay, but he had a feeling that it was mostly to keep the heir; LJ, nearby.

That was the first night that Jak actually slept right through one night and most of the next day. That was until he felt something poking his nose and then gently pulling his abnormally long hair. Feeling _Dark_ in him groan and curse whoever was trying to wake them up and promised an immediate death towards them, Jak slowly opened one blue eye and spotted the green hair and bright blue eyes of LJ staring right back at him.

Groaning Jak suddenly regretted in keeping the kid near his room. Not wanting to be judged by _going soft_ by Torn and the others he had put the kid in the room across from his, only for Daxter to take the bed and he crashed on the extremely soft couch. He could hear the ottsel's snore from where he was. "Wanna wake uncle Daxter?" he whispered towards LJ, who's eyes suddenly lit up with a mischievous glare and nod at this idea. Placing his index over his lips Jak quietly pushed the covers from his body, totally forgetting about being shirtless; even though it didn't feel like he was because of the bandages he was wearing covered most of his torso and arms.

Wincing as he stood, he picked LJ up and threw both their bodies on the bed. This resulted in Daxter suddenly being airborne and with the laws of physics, what goes up must come down; Daxter fell right on the bed not too far from where he'd bed sleeping peacefully and innocently." JAAAAK!" came the resulting screams as the ottsel landed on his back eyes wide, heart pounding mercilessly against his chest. "Arrgh!" he groaned as he suddenly had two small hands patting him, causing him to look at the innocent look that LJ was giving him. "Nu-uh, I don't believe it! You are **_so_ **not innocent in this little man!" he yelled causing LJ's ear to lower a bit, almost touching his shoulders.

Looking at the ottsel LJ lifted his head up, keeping his ears down, and giving him his best _I'm-sorry_ look that asked for forgiveness.

Groaning Daxter looked over at Jak and pointed at LJ. "That's just not fair." He complained. "You double attacked me!" Standing up in bed Daxter waddled over to Jak and began looking at his bandages. "At least your wounds seem to better." He said, seeming to happy with whatever he was looking for as he turned away from his best friend's chest. "Okay, what time is it?" as he asked this his stomach decided to answer for him.

Laughing Jak slowly stood up. "Hungry much Daxter?" he asked as he headed out of the room and into what he had thought was a bathroom, but turned out to be a walk-in closet. He grabbed a pair of tan jeans and a blue tunic before going to the door on the other side of the room and opening it to a very large bathroom. "Bath?" he asked.

Daxter sighed as he jumped off of the bed and took off after Jak. "I'm claiming the sink, ya even put those stinky socks in it and I'm a gonna be piss at ya."

LJ suddenly made a noise as he stumbled off of the bed to follow them. Turning his head back to the child Jak walked back over to him and placed him on the couch. "Stay." He said and walked back towards the bathroom, hearing Daxter practically singing praises at the warm water in the sink basin.

"Ya do know he ain't no croca dog, right?" Daxter asked as Jak suddenly began disrobing after he had started the bathtub water.

"I know." he stated as he got into the water after he'd taken off his bandages and bloody clothes. Leaning back against the tub Jak sighed and was just staring to relax when he heard a noise. Both he and Daxter turned towards the noise and saw peeking his head around the door was LJ. Groaning Jak sank deeper into the water. "LJ, please go sit on the couch." He asked gently but with enough force behind the words for the child to understand that he really meant what he said.

Upon hearing snickering from the sink basin Jak sat back up and retch down on the floor and flung one of his socks at Daxter, only for the snickering to turn into a full fled scream as the sock had not just landed in the water, but had also landed on Daxter's face, which resulted in part of it falling into the former elf's mouth. "JAAAK!" he screamed for the second time that day, this time it was Jak's turn to laugh.

Turning his head back towards the doorway he was surprised to find it empty. _He listened_. he thought, actually being surprised that LJ had done so. Jak then turned back to finish his bath quickly before the kid decided that it was too boring to wait around for them.

* * *

Once done with their baths, the two teens walked out only to find LJ on the floor in front of the couch waiting patiently. "Okay, so what did you want?" Jak asked LJ as he bent down to the kid's height. Standing up LJ lifted his arm, sniffed it and made a face. Jak's cheeks turned pink slightly at the embarrassment. _Of course he'd smell too_. he thought. The kid probably smelt worse than he and Daxter had, having been staying in Kor's nest for Precursor's know how long. Sighing, he went back over to the closet and looked for some child sized clothes, but came out with only a medium shirt. "We'll have to reuse those pants, but at least you'll be able to use a clean shirt." Looking over at Daxter who was looking out of the windows that went from ceiling to floor and looking out at the ruined city he spoke. "Think we'll be able to find something for his at a shop Dax?"

"Uh…err…" Daxter turned back towards Jak. "Maybe." He watched his best friend take his younger self by the hand and lead him into the bathroom. It wasn't long before the two of them came out. Jak looking a little wet, but LJ looking quite happy. He chuckled, "Who's hungry?" he asked as Jak smirked at Daxter and the three boys left the room to begin their day.

* * *

Sometime later they were outside on the streets heading towards the Hip Hog. "Ya know," Daxter began as he itched the back of his ear with his foot, all the while doing a balancing act on Jak's shoulder. "I'm thinking of askin' Ashelin if I could have ol' tub of lard's bar." Jak looked at his friend and smirked. "What?" he asked indignantly. "I've done my share to help this damn city, it's about time it paid me for my services." He looked at LJ who was holding Jak's hand while they were walking down the street. "Kid friendly during the day and drunks at night." He snickered at Jak's look of surprise at his friend's words. "What, I can be nice."

"Yeah, but _kid friendly_ means hiding the booze every single day Dax." He picked LJ up and held him on his hip. "Beside's what other kids would go to this place?"

Looking at LJ who made a silly face at Daxter, Dax chuckled. "Cute ones?" he asked sincerely as they entered the bar. Both stopped in their tracks at the scene before them. Torn and Jinx were back to back snoring against each other. Tess was curled up in a booth with Keria propped up against a wall, a pistol in her lap. Daxter was about to make a snarky remark when the swing doors that led to the back opened and revealed Ashelin walking into the room looking at some papers.

Upon looking up Ashelin smiled. "Jak." She said softly, probably hoping to allow everybody to rest a little while longer.

"Why is everybody here sleeping?" he asked as he approached her up by the bar.

She snorted. "Torn refused to go to the Palace and sleep, so he and Jinx decided to run some things by me." She paused. "Keira showed up with Tess and the two began talking about weapon systems and reinforcing personal shields and how to improve the shield wall and etc." she looked at him holding LJ. "You going to take him everywhere you go? You know there's a thing called Daycare." She smirked, only for it to vanish by the death glare that earned her. "Or you can carry him everywhere you go." She added

"Good idea." Daxter said. "By the way toots, I was hoping ya could talk to me about this here establishment."

"What about it?" she asked oblivious of the look of wanting that Daxter was giving her. "I'm thinking of demolishing it and turning it into something useful."

"Nooo!" Daxter yelled, causing Torn's snoring to stutter for a moment only to return to its normal sound. Ashelin glared at him causing his ears to fall back against his head.

"Daxter and I want this place." Jak interjected into the conversation as he sat LJ on the bar table.

"Oh, is that all?" she asked as she looked at them speculative. She then looked back down at the papers she was holding. "These are the deeds to this place and several other places Krew owned. One of which is a big apartment complex on the _good_ side of town." She could see that neither of the boys was budging on this subject. "Look, the truth is you're both too late on this subject. Tess asked last night and Torn's got permission from her to turn the center ring into a southern HQ communication device." She crossed her arms over her chest. "And until the heir," she looked over at LJ who was drinking some water out of a water bottle that he'd been carrying all day. "is old enough, I've been elected by the underground; both Samos' and Onin included, to be a governor of sorts. I can't go back on my word; because then I'd be no better than my father."

Jak's ears fell a bit as he nodded. "Yeah, that's true." He looked over at Daxter who was pilfering through the liquor. "Dax?"

Daxter paused with what he was doing and sighed. "Well, we could always ask Tessie Poo if she'd hire a hero and a sidekick." He joked as he smiled at his best friend.

* * *

As it turned out Tess loved the idea of her Daxie snookums and _**his**_ sidekick coming to work for her, but by working for her neither boy knew what that was about to entitle. So by the end of the week Jak and Daxter had helped Tess remodel the entire bar. Thankfully they were able to talk her out of putting any pink in the bar because that would not be appealing to any drunkard. The day before the big grand opening Torn called both boys to the Palace.

"Ah, what does Tattoo Wonder want from us?" Daxter groaned as they entered the throne room.

"I don't know." Jak replied as he turned to look over at LJ who was, as always, following them closely behind. Over the last week the little boy had started wandering around wherever Jak and Daxter were. He was usually a step or behind them or in front of them. Today was a few steps behind them kind of day.

"Jak." Torn greeted as he looked up from a map that was set up on a table in front of him. "There's been rumors of metal heads in Haven Forest again." He paused as Daxter jumped from Jak's shoulder pad and onto the table. Daxter looked down at the map where Torn was pointing. "There are some old ruins in this sector of the forest and a large underwater Precursor ruin nearby as well." Jak nodded as he leaned over and looked at the map. "I want you to take the furball and check this area out. Clear any metal heads out of the area. We don't need those bastards to come in for another sneak attack while we still have our pants down."

"Gotcha." Jak nodded as he turned to leave, Daxter following closely behind. LJ running after him.

"That means leaving the kid behind." Torn growled out at seeing the child run off towards the renegade.

Looking down at LJ, Jak smiled. "I know." He stated as he left the room with LJ running behind him.

* * *

As it turned out Tess was good with children and had jumped at the chance to take care of her cutie LJ. The little boy on the other hand seemed stunned that Jak was leaving him behind. Jak had to bend down to LJ's level and assure him that he'd be coming back for him. He really didn't want the kid to get any abandonment issues.

Once in Haven Forest he rode on his hoverboard throughout the journey to the ruins. Not a single metal head had been sighted by him or Daxter. "Ack, I think Tattoo Wonder's intel was wrong this time around. There's nothing here!" he complained and for once he was actually happy that the intel was wrong.

"I don't know Dax, _**Dark**_ is a bit itchy." Jak stated. The moment he brought up his other self's name he felt the creature stir inside of him. It felt as if the beast wasn't sure of something, but what Jak couldn't say.

As the duo continued their way through the forest and went deeper than they'd ever been, the more _Dark_ began to stir. It got to a point where the creature was practically yelling for Jak to turn back; that there was something not entirely right in this area. Jak came to a conclusion that his dark persona was scared of something and for that to occur it had to be bad. So he continued his way until they came up to an old hut that made both boys gasp. Getting off of the board and putting it away they approached the old hut and walked into it. Inside they saw the all too familiar warp gate and the device on the floor that would turn it on. To their left was a telescope and to their right were old mechanical things. "It's the blue sage's lab." Jak said quietly, almost too afraid that if he spoke too loudly this hut and everything inside would vanish. This was just another piece of evidence that said that they were indeed near Sandover, but very far in the future.

Jumping off of Jak's shoulder Daxter walked over to the old warp gate and jumped onto the button. There was a whirling sound as the mechanical things on the wall suddenly began to activate and then a whirling pool of blue appeared in front of him as the warp gate suddenly activated. Looking up at Jak who was looking at the gate with curiosity and intrigue he said. "Well, since there's no metal heads here, let's go see where this will take us."

Jak smiled down at Daxter and grabbed his friend by his tail before jumping through the portal. When they came through to the other side they found themselves in a metal cavern made out of the Precursorean metal. As they traveled through the place they came across metal head bodies, all of which were dead. Pulling out his gun Jak switched it over to blaster mod and stayed alert. _Dark_ was once again pleading for them to turn back and forget about this place. Jak was even more curious as to what could cause the beast to be so frightened when they came across a pool of light eco.

"Holy-" Daxter began

"-Eco" Jak finished.

The two best friends smiled as they looked at the beautiful glistening white eco. Pulling his pack off his back Jak opened it and looked inside for something and gasped as he found what he was looking for and pulled out a jar. Dipping the jar into the eco he filled the entire thing up and sat it on the ground, he then put the cap back on the top. However when he went to pick the jar that was now full of light eco, he hissed in pain and quickly pulled his hand back. Looking down he saw that his hand was now burnt. It was then that heard a splash and looked up at Daxter only to find his best friend was missing. "Dax!" he yelled out in horror as he realized what had happened. Daxter had jumped into the pool of eco thinking it might turn him back into the young man he once was. Peering over the pool Jak looking into the milky substance for any sign that his best friend was alive, but the liquid was still. That was until bubbles began appearing and something shot out of the liquid right at him.

Jak suddenly found himself on his back and his arms suddenly filled with something cold, shivering and heavy. Lifting his head off of the ground and looking at what was in his arms he found a shiver red and orange hair young man in his arms. The young man groaned as he slowly sat up in Jak's arms. His red and orange hair covered his face. In fact his hair went down to his shoulders on the sides and mid back in the back. Lifting a hand to his face the young man pushed it out of his eyes, revealing bright blue eyes that were wide as saucers as he looked at himself.

"Jak!" he yelled revealing that this was indeed his best friend Daxter that was sprawled across his body and very naked. Suddenly that last part made the green blonde haired man flush with embarrassment. 'Dude, I'm back! It worked!" He grabbed Jak and hugged him, totally ignoring the blonde's flush.

"Dax?" Jak finally spoke his friend's name. "You're naked."

As if that hadn't even registered before Daxter looked down at his body. "Huh, guess I am." He said as a flush crossed his face as well. "Err….ya don't happen to have packed another set clothes did ya buddy?" as he asked this Jak began to get the red head off of him and looked in the pack, only to find another one of his shirts, this one was a black tank with red around the holes where the arms when through. He handed it to Daxter, who put it on and was shocked to find that the already large shirt basically covered him from top to just mid thigh. "Well at least it covers the junk." He stated as he tried and failed to stand right. "Hey what happened to yer hand Jak?" the red head looked at Jak as he wrapped a bandage around it.

"The light eco burned me." He said as he pointed at the eco in the jar.

Finally gaining his balance Daxter walked over to the jar and picked it up. "This burnt you?" he asked as he looked at Jak, who nodded. "Huh, wonder why."

Jak opened his pack for Daxter to put it in it. The red head did so and the demolition duo left the creepy ruins the way they had come. Neither young man realizing that things would begin changing rapidly for both of them.

* * *

**M-Angel**: Well that went well. Hehehe...party and a discovery is up next.


	3. Chapter 3: The Discovery

**Chapter 3**:_ The Discovery_

* * *

"Err…Jak." Daxter began as they found themselves once again in the ancient blue sage's lab. "About what happened back there." Jak looked at Daxter and found his friend scratching the back of his neck nervously and leaning against one of the metal tables that was pushed against the wall. "Uh, can we leave out the part of me landing on top of you naked out of the story when we report back?" Jak's ears twitched at this and he raised an eyebrow at his friend's discomfort. "I mean, not that I'm embarrassed, but we both know that Tattoo Wonder will twist this around into a joke that I'll never live down."

Chuckling Jak nodded. "No problem Dax." He said as he was about to pull out his hoverboard once again, when a noise caught his attention. He heard Daxter curse and walk up behind Jak and pull out the dagger that he carried that was tucked into his lower back. The blade was new, something Keira had given the hero for killing Kor.

Sneaking up to the side of the doorway Jak peered around the doorway and spotted one of the feline type metal heads with a few grunts and drones following it. Jak pulled his head back and held up his hand to stop Daxter from making a single move and then held up four fingers and then two more and pointed the opposite way as he had spotted two that way as well. _Six metal heads total_. Daxter thought and nodded at Jak's signal to stay put as his best friend ran out of the hut.

Daxter watched from the doorway as Jak took out the feline by simply walking up behind it, grabbing it head and snapping it. The grunts and drone then took notice that he was there and began to attack him. One drone flew behind him, only to get a peacemaker shot right through its belly. Its companions, who were flying too closely with it, were also killed. That took care of the four. Then the two grunts attacked, one managed to slice Jak's jeans and dig into his thigh with the dagger-like stinger on the end of its tail. Jak cried out and that's when Daxter made his move and threw the dagger in his hand and struck the second grunt that was coming in for an attack from Jak's other side and killed it instantly. The one that managed to attack Jak soon wished it hadn't, as the dark elf grabbed it by the tail and yanked its stinger out of his thigh and proceeded to stomp the life out of it.

Running over to his injured friend Daxter pulled Jaks pack back off of his back and proceeded to look for a green eco life pack. Upon finding it he handed it to Jak, who was smearing the blood away from the wound in order to get a good look at it and hissed once he did. He took the offered life pack and smeared the healing substance over the wound and sighed as he felt the familiar coolness enter the wound. "Thanks Dax." He said with a smile and looked over at his friend who was now tying the pack up and carrying it.

"No problemo buddy." He said as he gave Jak one of his cocky smirks. The two then headed back towards Haven City after clearing the rest of the metal heads out of the area, which turned out to be a lot easier with Daxter throwing his dagger at the small fry and letting Jak handle the bigger ones. Once inside the city walls they made a beeline for a clothing store for some pants and boots for Daxter.

* * *

Torn looked at the red headed kid in front of him and blinked as Jak retold the same story this kid who was claiming to be the furball had just told them. Turning his head towards Ashelin, who had her hands on her hips the entire time, he asked. "Do you believe this?" he still didn't believe it. There was no way it could be true.

"If it is then there are secrets to eco that we've never known." She said as she rounded the table and stood in front of Daxter. Her eyes went from his face to his feet. Despite having changed species Daxter still had a rat-like look to him. The slight over bite, long hair, and wide wild eyes really made her wonder. "Okay. Daxter." She leaned forward and grabbed his face and was examining it when she saw where his eyes were looking at and snorted. "It's him." She then smacked him over the head for looking down her cleavage.

Daxter shrugged at Jak in his usual I-couldn't-help-it kind of look. "So now that Dax is back to himself, he'll need some training with guns and-"

"No." Torn stated shaking his head. "There's no way I'm training the rat to shoot. Knowing him he'd shoot himself in his ass or kill himself."

Daxter growled. "You wouldn't have to." Jak smirked. "I'd teach him." Everybody, Daxter included, stared at Jak. It only took Daxter a moment to go from shocked that his best friend would teach him how to shoot to excited.

While Daxter was excited about this prospect, neither Torn nor Ashelin were. "You teach him." Torn said pointing at Daxter. "Dear Precursors. We're doomed." He shook his head.

"No offence Jak," Ashelin began, "But you're a bit wild when it comes to shooting, yourself."

"I was trained by Sig." Jak responded, his ears falling a bit at the last memory of Sig being killed by the metal head in the underport.

"Sig was a wastelander." Torn sniped. "He knew nothing-" Torn stopped talking when he heard a duel growl; one coming from the red head, and the more menacing one coming off from Jak.

Daxter suddenly lunged at the Commander of the new Freedom Guard. "No, you have no right!" he yelled. "Sig was way better than you, you fucking ASSHOLE!" While Torn was trying to push the red head away, he didn't have time to react when the red head suddenly gave a powerful punch right into his gut.

Jak pulled Daxter off of Torn and turned. "Dax and I are leaving." He said walking away, only to pause when he saw a balding man in a blue robe walk by them. His eyes widened as a memory suddenly came to the front of his mind. Shaking his head he and Daxter walked out of the throne room and subsequently left the palace.

* * *

Ashelin had seen Jak pause when Count Vegar walked past him and frowned. She didn't know Jak had met the count; but it would surprise her if the count had approached him once. "What do you want Vegar."

"My dear Governoress, I have coming here with some news." He sneered at her. The prestigious count thought he was not only smarted than she and the others, but also thought she didn't know about his eco experiments. Because of something Jak had said she had begin to look through her father's old logs at the now shut down KG Prison, which she was going to tear down and have a school built in its stead. The logs that her father and other scientists had left there had been brought over to the new mainframe computers that were currently being housed there in the palace. Inside those logs she had found that Vegar and the counsel were just as guilty for Jak's current state as her father and Erol had been.

"What news?" she asked being careful to keep her poker face in place and not show any kind of feeling towards the count.

"That our world is about to be destroyed, but there is hope." He smiled at her, hoping to cause her to lose that stone faced façade; but it didn't melt away.

"What kind of hope?" she asked her voice just as cold as her face. Torn was trying to ignore the entire thing, but was impressed by Ashelin totally ignoring the count's bait to get her worried.

"The kind that'll save us from…" he paused and smirked as he saw Torn's attention was suddenly caught. "the Dark Makers."

Ashelin had heard tales of the Dark Makers by her father and in stories and myths. She sighed. _Its only one of his scare tactics_. She thought. "Right." She turned her back towards him. "While you're trying to scare me with tales of the boogieman, I have real problems to solve. One of which is primarily caused by you and the counsel."

Vegar was knocked out of his state pretentiousness when he heard this. "What are you talking about?" he demanded.

"Eco experiments." She stated with a smirk and whirled around just in time to see his look of shock. "Don't try to deny it. I've seen the files and the results. Yours and the counsel's fingerprints are everywhere on the DWP experiments and several others; including one with light eco that just never seemed to get off." She leaned over the table at him. "I don't take kindly at finding out that the counsel in behind the reason that this city is sinking."

Vegar suddenly looked very worried, his ears having sunk almost to his shoulders. "I-"he began but was cut off by Torn.

"Don't even try to say you had no idea." He said his voice going dangerously low. "We all know your fingers are more than likely more sticky than Krew's after eating."

The count swallowed hard. "Which is why I'm dissolving the counsel and will be looking for new counsel heads to help me rebuild this city and while I'm at it, you and the rest of the council will be looking at liquidations of property and finances."

"You can't do that!" he screamed at her. "Those properties were given to us by-"

"The Mar family which from my father's logs and journal entries from various members of the counsel state they were all a part of the exile of King Damas and the death of his wife Queen Mar." Ashelin finished for him. "You'll have one hour to pack and find an apartment complex near the port or subdivision in the new section of the city that's being rebuilt in the former water slum area." She watched Vegar turn to leave. "Oh and don't try to take any of your credits. They've already been liquidated." She watched the count stomp out of the throne room, she could still feel her nerves bustling when suddenly she felt two arms wrap around her and looked behind herself to see Torn smiling.

"Very impressive." He said with a chuckle.

"I've wanted to do that for years." She admitted as she leaned in to kiss him, only for her comm. to beep. Sighing both pulled away from one another so she could answer it.

"You're transport is ready m'lady." came a gruff voice over the comm.

"Thank-you Captain Brutter." She said as she looked over at Torn. "Come on; let's go celebrate with our new friends."

Torn sighed as he looked over at the table with piles of paper work on it. "I've got so much to do." He tried to make her believe he was too busy for celebrating.

"Ten hut!" she yelled, causing him to go at attention. "As Commander of the new Freedom Guard I hereby order you to come with me to a function for this city."

"Yes sir!" Torn yelled without thinking, all the while keeping his back as straight as he could. "I mean, Ma'am."

"Besides big guy I want to see you on the dance floor." She said with a sultry look in eyes and a flirty meaning behind her words.

"Not likely." He flirted back as they closed in for a kiss.

* * *

Sometime after leaving the Palace, Jak and a still fuming Daxter made their way back to the newly renovated Naughty Ottsel bar, formerly named the Hip Hog Saloon. Once inside Daxter's sour mood vanished at the sight of the bar inside. There were booths on either side of the room, like before, however the boxing ring and stripper pole had been taken down and a nice large dancing floor had been put in. The second floor had been turned into ten fully equipped bedrooms, with their worn private bathrooms. Each room was the same color of white, with new pristine beds. Tess' idea was that if somebody was too drunk to go home, then they'd have to stay in one of the rentable rooms.

"Tessie poo, I'm home!" he yelled out knowing his girlfriend would hear him.

Jak looked around the bar and smiled. It's been a lot of work, but they'd been able to get this place up and running once again. Torn just had to bring his holographic table here after the party tomorrow. Turning he heard a gasp and saw Tess with a hand over her mouth and she tentively approached Daxter.

"Daxie?" she questioned as she peered under the mop of his hair.

Daxter pushed the hair out of the front of his face and smiled at her. "Yep, it's me!" he cried out as she suddenly grabbed him and pulled his head towards her chest.

"Ooo, Daxie, you're so sexy!" she pulled his face towards hers and gave him a big kiss that had his ears popping upwards and his arms going outwards in surprise as he moaned against her lips. When she pulled away he had a silly look upon his face that made her giggle.

"Mmm…yeah..I-I could go for more sugar; Tessie poo." He sighed as she laughed.

"Oh Daxie." She giggled as she began looking at his hair and clothing. "You need a makeover, and just in time for the party too."

"Oh, makeover yer sayin'." He suddenly didn't look so sure. "Err…what about Jak?"

She looked Jak over and giggled. "He's a renegade. He can get away with no grooming." She said with a shrug. Daxter's jaw dropped as he stuttered to come up with a reason why a makeover was a very bad idea, but Tess hushed him up with another kiss and manhandled Daxter up the stairs, though now he wasn't complaining.

Jak shook his head as he walked over to the bar and began going through the cupboards and the mini-fridge for something refreshing to drink and settled for a bottle of water. He'd just stood back up from going through the refrigerator when he saw LJ standing behind him. The little boy's once chin length hair was now cut and styled. Cut on the sides and tall on top. He chuckled and bent down to his level. "Did aunt Tess get a hold of you too?" he asked. The boy rolled his eyes and nodded before pointing at Jak's water bottle. "Thirsty?" he asked as he turned back to the unit and grabbed another bottle of water.

Jak looked at himself in the mirror and had to admit, he did look a bit rough. His goatee even looked a bit, scruffy. Looking down at LJ he asked. "Think I should shave it off?"

The little boy looked up at him, like he was really thinking about the question and shook his head no, before pointing at Jak's mid-back hair.

"Need a haircut." he asked LJ who nodded with a smile. "Hmm…Maybe I'll put 'em in dreads." He thought outloud as he and LJ enjoyed their drinks.

It was about twenty minutes later that Daxter came downstairs. The makeover had entailed his hair getting snipped to chin length on the sides, the front now had bangs, and in the back was a long rat tail-like braid that was tied off with a green ribbon. Daxter also now had his ears pierced. The left had two golden studs down on the lobe. The right ear was pierced near the tip and had two golden studs as well. He still wore the shirt he'd been given by Jak, but now wore knee length shorts that had pockets on the legs and butt. He also had a pack slung over his head and resting on his left hip and combat boots that went half way up his calf.

"What'd ya think Jakie boy?" he asked in his most serious voice.

"Very nice." Jak said giving him two thumb up.

"He's a sexy Daxie now." Tess said as she kissed Daxter's cheek and walked over to behind the bar counter.

"Tess, you still have those clippers?" Jak asked real serious.

"Sure." She said with a giggle. "I need to get ready myself; I'll put 'em in the room across from mine."

"Thanks Tess." Jak said this as he stood up and looked at Daxter. "Watch him."

"No promblemo." Daxter looked over towards LJ. "Wanna play a game?" he asked the little boy who nodded as Daxter took him over towards the wack-a-metal-head game that was still in the corner of the room. "I've got the highest score." Daxter announced proudly. "Now the trick is…"

* * *

After showering and dressing in the clean blue shirt and black jeans that Tess had also lain out for him Jak went back into the bathroom and wiped the mirror with the towel. Picking up and brush he got the tangles out of his hair and then picked up the clippers and began cutting his hair until it was even and just below his shoulders. Upon hearing the door to his bedroom open he turned to look out and see Tess picking up his dirty stuff.

"Hey Tess," he spoke causing the petite blonde woman to jump slightly at being caught in his room.

"Yeah Jak?" she asked as she turned around and saw him looking at her through the doorway.

He held up the clippers. "Could you get the back?" he asked a bit embarrassed.

She smiled. "Sure!" she walked over to him and began to help ensure that his hair wasn't all messed up.

* * *

Daxter pouted as he drank some sort of purple drink that he'd found. LJ had beaten his score. _How the heck did the kid do that_!? He wondered as he heard the machine begin dinging again. Turning around he watched LJ play the game again. He was totally engrossed in it, so that when he felt somebody tap his shoulder he had jumped. Turning to see who had scared the living snot out of him he groaned at seeing that it was Jak.

Daxter smirked as he looked Jak over. The green, blonde hair was no longer wild or windblown looking. He had two braids on either side of his head, hair was combed straight back, curling slightly at the ends. His normal clothes, minus his pants now being black instead of tan and black combat boots; a black knife on his hip once again, but he was missing his eco ring and straps and the shoulder guard. He snickered when he saw that in both ears near both lobes were twin golden ear piercings.

"She got you too." he snickered.

"Hush." He slapped Daxter over the head, which the red head had ducked successfully. The two boys began to roughhouse just as Keira and her two fathers arrived. Little LJ looked up to the arrivals from his game and ran back to Jak and Daxter. Apparently the little boy didn't trust the ex-underground leader any longer. That or he just didn't want to be around two of them at the same time.

After they arrived when was Torn, Ashelin, Brutter, and Jinx arrived. The ex-mercenary sat down next to Jak. "Hey pretty boy," he said greeting Jak, who rolled his eyes at the nickname. "Kill anything lately?"

"Just metal heads near the ruins in the deeper parts of Haven Forest." Jak shrugged as the bomb expert snorted.

"Figures." He muttered as he brought a glass filled with a yellow liquid to his lips swallowed and then took a puff of his cigar.

Looking down at LJ, who made a face at the cigar smoke and Jak had to agree with his younger self. It wasn't a pleasant smell. Picking LJ up, he left the bar and sat down in a booth near the exit. He could still hear Daxter retelling how he bagged Kor's head and that Jak had needed his help as Keira suddenly sat down next to him. LJ climbed up on the table and overlooked the two and smiled at Keira, a little blush appearing on the boy's face; which caused Jak and Keira to chuckle.

"Can't believe he's you." She said as she stopped chuckling.

Looking down at her Jak smiled. "Yeah, good times." He stated darkly, as he looked at the younger version of himself.

"When he grows up, he'll be a big hero." Keira sighed as she leaned subjectively into Jak. Looking around himself he saw nobody looking; not even LJ who was now watching Pecker and Daxter talking, and leaned in and gently kissed Keira's soft lips. The young woman next to him sighed as he began to deepen the kiss.

"HEY!" the couple jerked apart afraid that they'd been caught and saw Daxter yelling at Onin. "That's it! I'm cutting" ya off."

Onin's fingers began to glow and she threw some energy at Daxter, causing the youth to fly into the air and land on his back on the dance floor. "I wouldn't if I was you. When she gets this way it's never good." Pecker said as more symbols flew through the air at Daxter, who looked at Pecker. "Something about rubber tubing in certain parts of your mother." He said as more symbols came out from the seer's hand. "And _**that**_, you do not want me to interpret."

Just then the doors opened. Daxter, who was still on his back on the dance floor only saw something sharp and looking like a metal head. "ACK! A metal head!" he cried out.

Jak was up and out of his booth before he saw who it really was. "SIG!" both Daxter and Pecker yelled. "I knew that." Daxter finished off a bit sheepishly as he stood up.

"Sig!" Jak happily greeted the wastelander and clasped his arm with the older man.

"You didn't think some big nasty metal head was going to finish me off, did ya?" he asked in a joking manner. "Besides nothing could keep me away from the biggest party in town."

"I knew yer too tough for 'em big guy!" Daxter yelled as he came up next to Jak.

"Err…" Sig looked at the red head before looking at Jak. "Looks like I missed something." He laughed as he messed Daxter's hair up in the friendly way.

Daxter groaned as he tried, but failed to straighten it back up. It was then than Jak felt LJ tug his leg and looked down. The little boy looked up expectantly and then looked over at Sig who looked down at the little boy. His real eye going wide in surprise, while the mechanical was looking at the little boy real close. "Didn't know you were a dad Jak." He said testing Jak to see if the boy would lie to him.

Jak picked LJ up. "I'm not." He looked at LJ and then at Sig. "It's a long story."

"One I'll want to hear, real soon Chili pepper." His eyes never leaving the little boy's face as LJ suddenly gave Jak a tight hug around his neck.

* * *

It was after the party had settled down that Sig found Jak sitting on the ground with LJ playing with his croca dog and Daxter leaning against Jak's back as he and Tess discussed something.

"Ahhh," the old Sage breathed, smiling, "it feels good to finally be able to breathe free air."

"Yep, nothing like the smell of burning Metal Heads to get the olfactory nerves going." Daxter remarked, crossing his arms and giving the old elf his famous glare, which gained a nudge from Jak. Sig merely cleared his throat as he looked down at the red head."Alright, maybe for you it does," Daxter conceded, "but then, you're nuts!"

"Hey!" Sig said, sounding hurt thought anybody who knew the wastelander knew that it was more likely that Daxter had given him a compliment. "I'll have you know that I used to be a pretty normal guy. I can still remember when my mom used to tuck me into bed with my poopsie bear and a glass of warm, Yakow milk; telling me stories about Mar." There was a moment of stunned silence among the group, as every single person present turned to face the Wastelander, gapping at what they had just been told.

"Dude!" Daxter yelled with a laugh. "You've officially ruined your cred." Beside him Tess, Pecker and the even the croca dog began laughing at Sig's admittance.

Once they stopped some time later, and Samos, wiping the tears from his eyes, smiled up at the dark elf. "Jak," he said his voice strangely devoid of its usual harshness, "the future awaits."

* * *

**M-Angel**: Holy cow! This chapter was even longer than the last one. Way over 4,000 words. Jeesh! So what'd y'all think of this chapter? I truly want to know what you think of the story. I can't improve it if I don't know. *smiles*


	4. Chapter 4: Memories

**Chapter 4**: _Memories_

* * *

As the celebrations ended, most people went on home, however Jak and Daxter had already made up their minds that no matter what they weren't going to return to the palace; unless it was to gather their things from their room. Jak yawned as he stretched his arms over his head, causing his shirt to lift slightly and show his well toned belly. This of course gave both Keira and Tess; who were cleaning up the booths, a bit of a show. Whistling at Jak, Tess poked fun at him. "Nice belly Jak." She said with a playful wink.

Flushing Jak immediately put his arms down and laughed nervously. "Thanks?"

"No, thank-you." Keira flirted and winked at him as she and Tess went into the back to put the garbage out.

Shaking his head he paused at the sight of LJ, still awake; if only barely. The little boy's eyes drooped, causing his head to bob downward and then he'd jerk his head back up. He then looked up at Jak, his eyes portraying what he seemed to not be able to say. In fact, now that Jak thought about it, LJ hadn't spoken once in the week since the fight with Kor. He then thought back to his many babysitting jobs he had to do for the kid and realized that he hadn't spoken once. He then heard older Samos' saying good-bye in the back and saw the older man walk out to leave. "Samos," he began causing the older elf to pause in his footsteps. "Did I ever speak?" he said this as he nodded down towards his younger self.

"Now that I think about it," Samos began as he went into deep thought and then looked up at Jak's waiting gaze. "No." he sighed. "Whatever happened to you before you came to the underground had already stopped you from speaking. You seemed scared and you had been shaking in fear when I came across you and that mutt in the dark alley." He looked at the young boy, who seemed more attentive and was trying to grab the bird that was fluttering around Samos's head like it always did. "I guess we'll never know what really happened to you. However one thing always confused me." Jak gave his mentor a look that asked for him to continue. "How your younger self even survived the year before I found him."

"What do you mean?" Jak asked his eyes widening as he realized what his montor meant even as LJ climbed into his lap and looked up expectantly.

Samos looked as if he was going to continue when Sig walked into the room. "We'll finish this conversation another night son." He said as he rushed to leave, suddenly wanting to get back to the palace.

"Hello Cherry." Sig greeted Jak as he noticed that the little boy had officially nodded off in the youth's arms. Jak looked down and chuckled. "Does that a lot, doesn't he?"

Nodding Jak carefully shifted the boy in a more comfortable position. "Let me put him down, and I'll be back to explain some things to you." Jak said as he walked past the wastelander.

Once upstairs in his bedroom Jak laid LJ down in the bed and noticed that Mutt was already sleeping on the floor. The croca dog lifted its head and received a pat from its master. "Keep him safe Mutt." He said as walked back downstairs. When he closed the door he turned just in time to see Tess and Daxter walking hand in hand into Tess' bedroom. Shaking his head he went to go down the steps but stopped when he saw Keira walk up to him, her hips sashaying left to right in a sensual movement. Swallowing hard he gave her his best innocent smirk. "Going to bed Keir?" he asked calling her the nickname he'd called her every time he'd seen her, though almost always was in his head when he was growing up.

Raising an eyebrow at the nickname she laid her hands on his chest. "Only if you are." She flirted. It was then Jak picked up a scent from her and realized she was a bit drunk.

"Okay, but you'll have to go ahead." He paused trying to find a good excuse. "I've gotta make sure Dax locked up."

Keira giggled. "Don't be too long." She said as she continued her way down the hall and ended up in the room three doors down from his own room.

Sighing in relief he walked down the steps and looked around for Sig. He found the wastelander in the booth nearest to the exit. In front of him were two steaming cups of coffee. "Figured this was going to take awhile." Sig explained as he motioned towards the cups of coffee. "So explain to me why there's a kid following you around and why."

"Yeah."Jak said as he rubbed the back of his neck as he sat down across from the man. "Ok. I just want to say beforehand that ever word I'm about to tell you is one hundred percent true, even when it sounds extremely crazy." Sig gave a nod. "Okay, so this all began a long time ago in a village called Sandover."

* * *

Jak looked over at Sig after finishing his story. "Okay, so let me get this straight." Sig said trying to put this all in some words that made sense. "You lived and grew up in a village that only existed a little over three hundred years ago, you found some sortta Precursor device that brought you and your friends here, got captured, tortured and escaped in the last two years; toppled the old tyrant Praxis, killed your enemy Erol in a race and annihilated the metal head leadership and found out from said metal head that you are really the lost Prince of Haven City and that the kid was or is your younger self."

Jak nodded. "Yeah." He looked towards the stairs. "That…that about covers most of it."

"Most?" Sig asked, now really wondering if this kid he'd grown to like was really crazy. "There's more?"

Jak sighed. "I didn't want him to go through what I have. It's just not right." He looked down at the cup of coffee in his hand that he'd finished an hour or so ago. "I destroyed the Rift Gate in Kor's nest. The pain I've gone through, the innocence that I lost." The cup suddenly shattered in his hands. Not seeming to feel the shards of glass as they imbedded themselves into his skin he continued. "Samos knew everything that was going to happen." He growled. "He knew! Yet he did nothing to stop it!" by now the growl had turned into a snarl.

Sig had see Jak mad before, hell he'd seen the beast the first time he'd taken the kid and his diminutive friend out to the pumping station for that hunt. The creature had scared the shit out of him. He'd fought against many creatures, but that _thing_ was out of the worst of nightmares and it would seem he was about to get an encore visit from the ferocious beast. However, just when he thought Jak was about to lose it, he reigned in his hatred and anger and looked at Sig sheepishly before muttering an apology. After a moment of silence and thinking about what had been told to him, he knew he had to do some research before making a judgment and snagging the kid and bringing him back to his old man.

"Okay." was all he said as he stood up and grabbed his staff weapon.

"What?" Jak asked his head lifting from where it'd been on his chest since the apology had been said.

"I believe you." Sig looked up the stairs. "You plan to keep him safe and you're going to need help." Jak nodded. "Daxter needs some training before I'd trust him with anything."

Jak snorted. "Why does everybody think Dax is helpless?" Sig raised an eyebrow. "If it weren't for Dax, I'd be dead a hundred times over." He sighed. The way Jak talked about his friend caused the wastelander to sit back down.

"How'd you two meet?" Sig asked, genuinely curious how the muskrat and hero had become friends and why Jak would claim that the runt had saved his life a hundred times over.

Jak looked up and him and smirked. "Well, that's a long story."

"You see me getting up any time soon?" the wastelander leaned back into the booth and waited for Jak to start. "Well, we met the day Samos and I had arrived in Sandover…"

* * *

By the time Jak had finished the story of how Daxter and he had become friends to their many adventures growing up; including the wumpbee incident on his ninth birthday, it was morning. Jak yawned and couldn't believe how tired he was now. Sig didn't look fazed and chuckled at the youth. "Go on to bed Jak." He said. "I'll keep watch until somebody comes to relieve me."

"Ugh." Jak groaned as he stood up out of the booth and went to the front door and locked it. "Just go up to one of the rooms upstairs. Tess had then redone just so that people could sleep over when they needed."

"I appreciate it." the wastelander said as he watched Jak go upstairs. It was a few minutes after he was certain nobody was going to be coming downstairs when he pulled out a comm. unit.

"Report." came a gruff voice over the boxes speakers.

"You're up awful early." There was a sigh on the other side. "You haven't slept, have you?"

"Nightmares keep one awake, especially when the nightmare is real." came the sad reply.

"Well, I've got good news, for a change." Sig stated, unsure of how to explain this one to his friend.

"You found his body?" the voice said followed by what sounded like a sob, though Sig couldn't be certain.

"No."

"Then what!?" the voice demanded anger seeping in the voice.

_Why didn't I put this together sooner? They're so much alike._ He chuckled. "I found him, but-"

"But what?"

"Well, this is going to sound crazy." Sig wasn't even sure if he truly believed it. "You know that kid Jak that I've been telling you about for the last six months?"

There was a chuckle. "Yes."

"It turns out that he's Mar." Sig knew this was going to be hard to tell.

There was a sigh on the other end. "Is this a joke?"

"Now listen." and with that Sig repeated what he'd been told, afterwards he'd let his king decided whether or not to believe any of this.

* * *

As soon as Jak walked into his room he spotted LJ sleeping on the bed with mutt, who lifted his head from the bed as soon as he had entered the room, only to put it back down. Deciding not to wake LJ he grabbed a pillow and sheet from a cupboard in the room and laid down on the large couch that was positioned right under the window to the outdoors. The morning commotion had already begun, and Jak was tired as hell. It didn't take him long to fall into a fitful sleep.

**_Jak found himself being held by strong arms. The person holding him was running from the bad guys. He didn't know how he knew this; he just did. Suddenly the man holding him came to a stop. In front of them were dozens of men in red and black armor. A big man in the center of this group approached them. Jak's littler self clasped the shirt of the man holding him. Fear radiating from his tiny body to the point that he whimpered. "Be still son, no one shall harm you. I won't let them." said the man holding him._**

**_"You shouldn't make promises to him that you can't keep Damas." said the all too familiar voice of Baron Praxis._**

**_"Praxis." Damas said in a saddening sigh. "You've killed my wife, let me leave with my son. Mar has done nothing!" The little boy tightened his grip on his father's clothes._**

**_Praxis seemed to think about this for a second before suddenly a new voice was heard. "The boy stays." The crowd of guards moved aside, revealing Count Vegar. "Even if you leave, this child must stay. He is the key to everything."_**

**_Praxis, having turned towards the count turned back towards Damas. "The vote has been cast, your son stays."_**

**_"You'll have to pry him from my dead arms." Damas snarled readying himself for a fight when suddenly the child fell from his arms and to the ground._**

**_Jak watched as his father fell and looked up to see the ever familiar sneer of Commander Erol. "Good job Commander." Vegar said as he roughly grabbed Mar and began to tug him away. Once away from the scene Jak watched his younger self struggle to get lose from the counts grip. Getting annoyed with the struggling child Vegar grabbed him by his throat and lift him off of the ground. "Knock it off you little bastard!" the count yelled._**

**_A whimper left the child's lips as his air supply was being cut off. When suddenly the count gave a cry and dropped him. Mar coughed and gasped for air as he gulped it into his lungs. Turning his head he saw Mutt his croca dog that mommy and daddy had gotten him. It was then that his natural instincts to save his life kicked in and he ran with mutt not too far behind him…._**

Jak gasped as he shot up from his sleep. He found himself once again in his room that was above the Naughty Ottsel. Turning his head he saw LJ sitting on the floor playing with some blocks that Tess had given him. The blocks were made out of precursorean metal and thick glass; that had blue and green eco trapped inside the glass. The boy looked up at Jak, his eyes widening and a smile suddenly came onto the child's face.

Swinging his legs over the edge of the couch he continued to look and LJ and also put the pieces to his dream into place and something clicked. "Your name is…Mar, isn't it?" he asked the little boy, whose eyes widened at his friend finding out his secret. He gave a tentative nod. "Mar…" Jak whispered and then smiled. "It's a good name for ya kid." The boy stood up with one of the blue eco blocks in his hand and walked over to Jak and hugged him and then handed him the block. Chuckling Jak picked Mar up and walked downstairs.

* * *

Daxter rubbed his hands together as he and Jak stepped into the gun range together. Finally after waiting a week after getting his body back, he was about to get a gun of his own and learn how to use it. It wasn't until they stepped inside that he noticed Tess and Sig in the room. "Hey guys, what are yer doin' here?" as he asked this Jak sat LJ; who Jak had told Daxter was now named Mar, over in a corner and sat a bag down in front of him. Mar opened the bag and pulled out his blocks and immediately began going town with building something with them.

Tess giggled at Daxter's question. "Well, I'm here to give you your new guns and then Jak and Sig will show you how to use them." She smiled at the little boy who was oblivious as to where he was. "While you are learning how to shoot and be a hero in this form like you were while you were a cutie ottsel; I'm going to be watching Mar here." Sig's good eye widened at the kid's real name being used.

"Uh Tessy Poo?" Daxter questioned as he looked at the wastelander.

"Don't wet yourself chilipepper, I'm in on the little secret." Sig assured the youth as he noticed how Daxter had suddenly put himself into the view between the heir and Sig.

Daxter's chest deflated with a sigh. "Woo, thank goodness." He sauntered over to Tess as Jak waited by leaning against the door into the gun course. Daxter eyed several large weapons on the rack. "So what am I learning with?" asked eager to begin.

Tess pulled a box up on a table near the wall of guns. Inside were two duel eco pistols. "These are a smaller version of Jak's gun. They have the same power, only compressed into a smaller version. They have the three main bad boy mods, which we'll get to in a minute. She flicked a small button on the side. This is the safety, you just flick this small yellow button up to turn it off and down to turn it on. This red button on the same side helps you to flick through the mods. The mods are blaster, scatter, and peacemaker. The peacemaker isn't has powerful as Jak; whose isn't even as powerful as Sig's weapon. Anyway, there are upgrades which will allow you to make these sturdier and capable to hold more ammunition, oh and the kick back is barely noticeable on these. Oh I just love these pistols!" she cooed, causing Daxter to lift and eyebrow at her and look at Jak; who shrugged. "Ashelin hasn't even gotten this pistol yet. Mostly because it's a one of a kind."

"Why's that Tessy?" he asked as she handed him the guns. He held them in his hands and was impressed to see that they were lightweight and not really that heavy, unlike Jak's beast. He still remembered lifting that thing while being on Jak's shoulder and shooting at guards or transports and shit. He wiggled his eyebrows at Jak, who snorted.

"Because I made them especially for you snookums." She cooed as she kissed his cheek.

Sig cleared his throat and stepped forward with another box, this one was bigger. "As nice as those pistols are Jak told me how you liked to throw things back when you lived where you lived."

"Hell yea!" Daxter yelled. "I could kill a lurker crab at thirty yards with a single shot from my bow. The trick was to shoot through the tiny hold they popped out of." He explained as he got excited over that memory. "Boy I miss that bow, it was awesome."

Jak nodded. "Yeah, he once shot a lurker shark with one." He smirked as Daxter's ears fell back.

"Oh…well, yeah, he was gonna swallow yer ass." He threw back at his friend.

"That's a story for another time." Sig said as he brought out a precursorean rod that was shaped in the bend of a bow; but the strings were missing. Handing it to Daxter, who had sat the pistols down on the table, who then took the bow that was handed to him. "Flick it by shoving the rod forward." Sig instructed, Daxter followed and when he did it he watched as a blue eco string appeared and attached from top to bottom of the bow and watched as blew lights lit up along the rod which had also transformed into a more natural looking bow arch.

"Sweet eco!" Daxter yelled happily as he looked at the bow.

"Now there are four types of arrows in this quiver." Sig said handing Daxter a long bag that would go on the youths back. The red ones are clearly marked. These will make your targets explode. The yellow one will make your targets burst into flames. The blue ones will allow the arrow to travel at a fast speed to reach their target." Sig paused as he took one out of the quiver. This one looked different. It was devoid of all color and was completely black. "The ones marked with black, are dark poison arrows. These will kill your enemies almost instantly."

Daxter's eyes were wide with awe at what he'd been given and for a moment he felt his chest constrict with emotion. Taking a deep breath he spoke. "Thanks Sig." he said sincerely.

"Hell Cherry, can't let you get yourself or Jak here killed." He smiled. "Now let's see what you got." Daxter nodded at he hooked the quiver to his back and his pistols on his hips. Upon seeing that he was ready Sig nodded for Jak to move away from the door. "Now, there are three rounds to the first two levels. Six rounds to the last three. Each round is programmed with different types of enemies and yes there are civilians cut outs in there too. Some are electric and some are programmed to shoot back." Sig warned Daxter. "And in the case you wish to stop, just push the red button at the end of the hall." Daxter went to step forward. "AH, and before I forget cherry, there are hidden boxes throughout the course. Some have arrows and others ammo."

Daxter nodded. "No problem." he said confidently as he walked into the course and the doors shut behind him. Upon entering the area the course cameras all activated and a projection appeared on the wall in the waiting area where his friends were.

Jak watched with a smile as he saw Daxter sneak around a corner and shoot a metal head cutout, followed quickly by shooting a KG guardsman behind the metal head with his pistol on blaster mode. It wasn't long before more enemies appeared in front of Daxter and began popping out at a slow rate; this allowed his friend to shoot them easily. Level one was always the easiest, it was level three that was hard.

* * *

Daxter was having fun. He had to admit that he'd been scared about this part of the training. Learning what his weapons did was the easiest part, the hard part was shooting; but as he defeated level two his confidence grew. _If I remember right, level three has the shooting guards in it._ he thought as walked through level three's doors after reloading his gun at the loading station outside the levels doors.

As soon as he entered the room a metal head cutout of a flying drone came at his head. He flicked his bow out and shot at it with the red eco arrow. The resulting explosion caused the fellow cutouts to disintegrate into nothingness. _Right, this floor is totally going to be harder than the other two._

As he rounded a corner, he noticed that the room looked different and had the looks of a Haven Forest. He continued to walk into the room and saw a civilian pop out. He ignored that cutout, but shot the metal head behind it with his blaster mod. Then the civilian went down into the ground and was replaced by two metal heads . He kicked and shot, just like how Sig taught Jak and smiled as the two cutouts became nothing but sheets of paper.

Next came a barrage of KG guardsmen, he then saw a wall pop up for him to hide behind as the guardsmen began shooting. Diving behind the wall Daxter peeked around after the guards stopped and then shot with a yellow arrow with his bow and watched the cutouts burst into flames. The sprinkler system activated, but it was too late for the cutouts, they'd been reduced to ash.

Daxter smiled as he walked up to level four and realized that this was the round that Jak had a problem with and had yet to pass and groaned as he reloaded his weapons at the station and walked through the door.

* * *

Jak continued to watch Daxter's progress and smiled as he watched his score go up and up with each round he went through on each level. He then heard the gun course doors open and saw Torn and Ashelin walk into the room.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked, quite surprised that the two even had time to come here.

"Tess told us that Daxter was still in the course after two hours into it." Ashelin looked up at the score and smirked. "Are these his scores for each kill on each level?" she asked Jak, who gave a nod. "He's got a better kill score than I did on my first try through this course." She looked at Jak, "though I'll admit I was so worried the night before that I wasn't really awake."

Torn snorted as he watched Daxter nearly get decapitated by one of the flying cutouts and then looked at the kill score and the missed score; which caused him to do a double look. "Not a single miss?" he asked, causing Jak to smile and Tess to giggle as little Mar smiled at his blocks.

"Nope." Sig stated proudly. "The cherry knows how to make a shot count. He hasn't hit a single civilian either." He looked at the Haven City Freedom Guard Commander. "You still think he can't take shoot right."

Torn crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll admit I may have been a little doubtful that he wouldn't get himself killed." He paused as he watched Daxter duck and dodges his way through a closing corridor and then pulls out a blue arrow out and shot the switch that would stop him from being squished and finished the fourth level, a level Jak was still struggling with.

"Okay, now _I'm_ impressed." Jak said as he watched Daxter suddenly ping the quit button the elevator would bring him back to the front room.

As Daxter walked into the room he had the most shit eating grin on his face. "I lived!" he yelled as he saw Tessy walking over to her. He wrapped his arms around her waist. "That was awesome! Hard. But way awesome." He smiled as he kissed her.

Tess giggled as she kissed him back. "Not bad cherry." Sig complimented. "Not bad at all." He watched as the elevator dinged behind Daxter revealing Keira.

"Keira!" Daxter yelled. "What are you doin' here?"

She smiled as she walked up to Jak. "Jak asked me to program the levels for you." She stated as she kissed the hero on the lips.

"WHAT!?" his chest deflated thinking all of the level had been tweaked on his behalf.

"He wanted me to make level three and four harder for you so that your confidence on the first two would be tested." She looked up at Jak. "Not only were you doing better than I thought you'd do, but when I put in the last tweak in level four I was impressed how you got out of that mess. Jak has a hard enough time doing it on the normal settings for that level."

"So, you made it harder?" Daxter asked, which he received a nod from the mechanic. A grin returned to his face as he hugged his two friends. "Yer the best friends a guy could have!" he laughed.

Mar deciding that what was going on seemed more important than his blocks he ran over to Jak and tugged his hand. Bending down Jak picked the kid up. "Jak, I wanted to speak to you about, LJ." Ashelin began.

Jak frowned. "What about him."

Ashelin sighed as she felt that Jak's defenses were coming up. "I think he needs to be placed in a stable environment." she said. "You're going to be busy, especially since we've gotten more reports of larger metal heads moving in the sewers and we need you-"

"Woe, stop right there." Jak said sounding shocked. "I haven't even agreed to work for you guys again and you're assuming that I'll help you after how you treated Daxter and the things you," he pointed at Torn. "were saying about one of my friends."

"Listen Jak," Torn began shocked that he was still upset about that incident.

"Nu-uh." Daxter interjected. "You listen Tattoo Wonder, you were about ta say something totally uncalled for about the best guy we know! Sig may have been MIA at the time but that didn't give yer asses any good reason to sass about him."

"Now what's this about Chilipeppers. I think I should know about this one." Sig said sound both curious and angry. He knew that the Commander could care less about him, but he didn't even know the guy and he'd been sassing about him?

"It was when we'd asked him to teach Dax how to shoot right." Jak said, "When they said no, I offered to teach him; only for Ashelin to say I –"

"Look this is just getting blown out of proportion." Ashelin said looking at the little boy in Jaks arms. Mar clung to Jak; fear was starting to show in his eyes.

Jak narrowed his eyes. "You know what?" he growled. "I don't care anymore." He then began to walk out. "I've been used all my life, and now you want to use me again. It ends now! I'm not something to be used. I'm not a tool! And I'm done being used as one." with that Jak stalked out of the place both Daxter and Keira running off after him with Tess and Sig leaving soon after.

* * *

**M-Angel**: It's offical, I can't help but write long chapers when it comes to this story. I don't care either, because I can finally do it. I've been trying to write this way for years and finally I can. Now if I could only do it with my other stories. Lmbo! As always your imput is always welcome. I love hear from my readers through a review or PM. So now that I've offically kncoked the balance of things in Jak's world let's see if I can put some order to this chaos.


	5. Chapter 5: Destiny Unraveled

**Chapter 5**: _Destiny Unraveled_

* * *

Jak got to the Naughty Ottsel before anybody and was already upstairs by the time Daxter, Keira, Tess and Sig had arrived. Daxter knowing his friend better than anybody rushed upstairs with Keira and found Jak already throwing things onto his bed, little Mar sitting on the couch watching everything that was going on. Keira, rather than Daxter, approached Jak and touched his shoulder as he continued to gather his things together. "Where will you go?" she asked worry spreading throughout her being like a disease.

Not daring to look into her eyes he continued to look down at the bed; which was no covered in gun mods, weapon parts and clothing. "I don't know." He stated a matter of factly. "But I know one thing; I can't stay here."

"Ya know, I was watchin' tv a few nights ago an' saw a commercial for Krass City Racing." The two turned towards Daxter. "It's not like Haven racin' at all. You get ta shoot the peeps on the track and win lots of creds, if you survive the race an' all."

"Sounds dangerous." Keira said slightly as she sat down on the couch next to Mar.

"When hasn't our lives been dangerous?" Jak asked causing Keira to look up at Jak and see the twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

She giggled. "True." Standing back up she walked towards the door. "Plus, you already will have a mechanic." she said with a wink.

"Wait!" Daxter called out as she turned to leave. "Yer coming?" his eyes wide with shock. "Wadda 'bout yer garage here?"

"I've been meaning to move it for some time now." she shrugged as she turned to leave again.

Daxter turned back towards Jak. "We doin' this?" he asked as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yep." Jak said as he finished putting his things into a duffle bag. Going back to the closet he spotted another duff bag and looked at Mar. "Get your things, we're leaving for some place better." Mar smiled and nodded and Jak watched as the little boy began running around gathering his stuff and placing it on the bed for Jak to fold and put into the duffle bag.

Daxter sighed. "Okay, well I ain't leavin' you hanin' buddy." with that said Daxter took off before Jak could call off to him.

* * *

Tess watched as Keira came running down the steps. "What's goin' on?" she asked, causing the aqua haired girl to smile.

"We're leavin'." was all she could say as she ran past Sig and out the door.

Moments after Keira came running past the duo Daxter came running after her. "Tess baby, pack yer things; we are blowin' this berg!" he said with a grin. It was then he spotted his things in Sig's hands. "Sig, my man! Ya brought my stuff. Good 'cause I really ain't in the mood ta see those two again." as if the fates hated Daxter to the point of torture suddenly the two in question came into the establishment. "Nu-uh!" Daxter yelled as he spotted them coming through the door. "Yer not welcome here!"

Ignoring Daxter's comment Torn approached him. "Listen here rat…" he began but never finished because of a certain blonde woman.

"His name is Daxter, and you need to respect him better Torn." Tess growled her eyes narrowed at the tattooed man. "Daxter is right, you are not welcome here at this moment." She crossed her arms over her chest.

"This has to stop." Ashelin stated. "We need Jak…"

"Nu-uh babe, not this time!" Daxter yelled. "Yer not callin' the shots no more. Jak is done and dumped y'all. So git!" he pointed towards the door.

Ashelin's eyes widened as those words sunk in. "Jak is never done with his job." Torn said. "He thrives on fighting. It's what makes him the best fighter we have."

"Not anymore." Sig said as he pulled his staff weapon up and got into the two Haven leaders faces. "You've done and said something to the Cherry and though I don't know what it was; it was enough to have him quit you and this city. Now leave before this gets real ugly…wastelander style." at that threat the two retreated figuring they'd come back when everybody had time to clear their heads.

"Now where are you going to go Chilipepper?" Sig asked Daxter, who gave a wide smile at the wastelander.

"Ever heard of Kras City?"

* * *

Keira parked her zoomer at the stadium and ran up to her apartment above her work shop. She was both excited and scared. Excited because she had heard of Kras City Racing; it was the toughest racing circuit and paid a hundred times better. She was scared because for the first time in her life she was doing something without her father's knowledge and she loved it!

She grabbed most all of her things from the apartment and threw the linens and clothes in bags and threw them down into her workshop. She then grabbed anything else that was important to her and placed them in her backpack and then ran downstairs. Once in the workshop she packed all of her tools she was definitely going to need and placed them in tool boxes. She then placed all of her things into the back of her two seater zoomer and was about to leave when she spotted her father coming towards the stadium with Pecker. _Crap!_ she thought. She'd forgotten about Onin and her familiar. She was going to have to go right by them. _Unless I go the back way!_ She looked out the second garage door on the other end of her workshop, the one that lead to a back alley which lead to the farming district. It meant going the long way; but…_ I don't have a choice._ she thought as she turned the zoomer on, activated the second garage door and put the pedal to the metal.

She felt bad about leaving her father behind without telling him where she was going, but he'd never let her go to Kras City without him. Once past the alley, she out near the mall district and had to go through it to get to the farming district.

Once through there she came to the port and as she rounded the corner to go to the bar she heard her comm. go off. Looking down she saw that it was Tess. "Yes." she answered.

"Meet us by the transport at the port, oh and Sig and I are coming." She said with a giggle.

Keira shook her head at what the blonde girl had stated. She knew that the only reason Tess was coming was because of Daxter. _but why is Sig coming_? she silently wondered.

* * *

**6 months later**

**Location**: _Spargus City_

Deep in the wasteland past the mountains, the small oasis, and even farther than the Marauder fortress; near the ocean and built into the nearby mountain stood a city of sand. This city was tougher than most due to its nature. Wastelander's had called this home since before the time of Mar the Powerful; as he was called by the sand nomads. Spargus City was a city of warriors whose only thing they even cared about from another person was how strong they were. If their strength was tested in the arena and they failed that person was thrown out of the city and it would be like they never existed. It was with that rule that they tested every warrior. They would be tested in three rounds in the arena and by the final, if they lasted that long; they'd be considered part of Spargus and become part of the clan.

Even kings were tested, however their last and third test was different from others. They'd have to defeat the best warriors in the Spargian clan and if the warriors who had been defeated been good enough in their fighting the king would either make them their second or order them to be thrown out of the city.

It was during one of these tests that an old king named Variant had come to the end of his lifetime. His only heir had died a decade before and it would be time for him to soon name his heir. Kleiver the battlemaster and the one in charge of who did what when they first came to the city was the running man for this job; but Variant had known that the man had the temper of a metal-pede and was quick with the sword or gun.

So when he'd heard about the overthrow of the great King Damas of Haven City he'd sent his best man into the desert to find him. He knew Haven would never kill her king; but would rather just throw him into the wastes and hope it killed him. Or that was his theory.

When Sig returned with a half dead Damas Mar; he'd almost lost hope. The man would live through his many physical wounds, it would be the metal and emotional that would test the man.

Once Damas awoke from the herbal induced sleep that the monks had put him into, Variant had thrown the man into the first of the arena fights. Defying the king and only fighting with his hands everyone, Variant included was impressed when the man not only survived the four rounds; but killed each opponent quite violently.

The third test had been hard. He'd thrown Sig, Kleiver, and Zareth his second in charge, into the arena. Damas had defeated the best warriors that Spargus had to offer, though he was sure there were many others; it was these three that were the best of the best and they all had been defeated by Damas Mar, the former king of Haven City.

It was when Variant had told Damas that this test was to test him to see if he was worthy to lead the Spargian people that Damas had gotten mad. The man had gotten even madder; if possible, when he'd been told that he now controlled the lives of these three men. When Damas granted all of them the honor of staying Spargus, it was Zareth that screamed in anger. He shouted that he would never bow to a man who lost his own throne to a traitor. It had been Kleiver who'd grabbed the man and was going to throw him into the fiery pit; but Damas had stopped him; saying if he wanted to take his chances with the wastes he was welcome to leave. Zareth hadn't been the only who had left that day.

On the day Variant took his last breath Damas became the true ruler of Spargus. It hadn't even been a day since he'd taken the throne when he'd called Sig to the throne room. It was there that Sig found the newly crowned King looking out the mass of windows towards the east where Haven was. It was here that Sig found out that the King believed that, even after a year all alone in Haven; that his son, his only child; was still alive and asked Sig to find him.

Now, two years and ten months later Damas was sitting once again on his throne, like he had for years and was overlooking the falling sun on the desert. The colors changing the farther the sun set. Even though it looked as if he was watching this marvel of nature, he wasn't. His mind was elsewhere. Back to the conversation he and Sig had, had several months ago.

_Sleep eluded Damas, as it always did at night time, with the nightmares of his wife being gunned down in front of him and then his son being taken after he'd been knocked out. He was sitting in bed and contemplating whether he would try once more to sleep, even though he could see their green sun coming up in the distance from his bedroom window. It was then that his comm. unit sudden came alive. He looked at the name and sighed. "Report." came his gruff voice._

_"You're up awful early." came Sig's cheery voice over the units speakers.' Nobody should be that happy in the morning'. he thought as he sighed. "You haven't slept, have you?"_

_"Nightmares keep one awake, especially when the nightmare is real." He replied sadly as he leaned his back against the headboard of his bed._

_"Well, I've got good news, for a change." Sig stated, unsure of how to explain this one to his friend._

_At first Damas was happy, but then he remembered that Haven had been attacked in recent days. So the news couldn't be __**that**__ happy."You found his body?" he said followed by a sob. Even with his son dead, at least he could find closure._

_"No."_

_"Then what!?" he demanded anger seeping in the voice._

_He heard a chuckled. "I found him, but-"_

_"But what?" Damas couldn't afford to get too happy, though now he felt his heart now beating rapidly. His son was alive! His mind was screaming for an explanation on how that was possible._

_"Well, this is going to sound crazy." Sig began. "You know that kid Jak that I've been telling you about for the last six months?"_

_A chuckle made its way out of his throat. He remembered Sig complaining a lot about the boy's pet named Daxter always yapping and never shutting the hell up. "Yes."_

_"It turns out that he's Mar." Even as Sig said this Damas couldn't believe it. The one man he trusted and he came back with this…nonsense. _

_He sighed as his chest deflated and his hope finally died. "Is this a joke?"anger was in his voice along with the sound of betrayal._

_"Now listen." and with that began to spin a tale that was so farfetched that it couldn't be true. Finally at the end of the tale he told him how Jak refused to send his __**younger**__ self through a Precursorean ring back to the past in Sandover Village; that the young Mar was now the personal ward of older Jak and that the kid was extremely protective of the child, to the point that he hardly ever let him out of his sight._

_After a moment of silence Damas began to think about all of those stories he remembered as a child of a hero named Jak who had killed the evil Dark Sages Gol and Maia; saved his village of Sandover from an invasion of Lurkers from the Misty Islands and had vanished when he and the sage; along with the Sage's daughter had activated a Precursorean device they had found and brought to Sandover. 'It can't be.' he thought, but knew that nobody studies those old folklore stories anymore because they just were too impossible. 'But what if…" his mind teased._

"_Sig, I've got a new mission for you." He began and knew in his heart this was the right thing to do. "Stay with this __**Jak**__ and ensure that Mar is takin' care of and if you see a moment, bring Mar home."_

_There was a grunt and followed by, "As you wish."_

That was six months ago. Sig had gone off the radar. From what he was told; so had that Jak character. It made one wonder what had happened. Had Sig seen a moment to nab Mar from Jak, but Jak had bested him? _No_. he thought, _Sig was a good fighter and wouldn't be taken down, not even by this __**Jak**__ fellow_.

Damas heard the elevator rising up and looked over to see Kleiver heading over towards him. "Lordship." He greeted, a stink suddenly filled the room, though Damas had long found that if you kept your own hand in front of your nose Kleiver's scent could be ignored. "I was wonderin' if yous have had thee time to think about my idea of bringing thee racing circuit through Spargus. It'd bring us lots of commerce."

Damas looked at the brute of a man with a glare. "It would also bring Kras City's crime our way." He countered.

"I've'a got an' idea on how we can get rid of thee riff raff if they'd be too bad." He said rubbing his grimy hands together and a grin appeared on his face.

Damas knew that look; it promised pain to anyone who'd go against the battlemaster. Sighing he gave a single nod. "On the condition that they abide by our rules and the first to go against them and harm any Spargain _will_ pay with their lives." He growled.

The battlemaster grinned. "Aye my Lordship." He then turned and left, the elevator giving a screech as he got on it. "Need to oil that." Damas heard him mumble as he vanished downward into the pit that would lead to the main streets of Spargus.

* * *

**Location**: _Kras City racing apartments_

"G.T. Blitz here with another exciting day of races…." Jak droned out the Kras City broadcaster continued to drone on and on about how the race standing were when he heard his name being mentioned he looked up. "As for Team Jak, the up and coming racers; including Sig, Tess and the diminutive; but quick Daxter are in the front winning this week for top dogs against what has been dubbed Team Mizo; but as with every shining star, every star falls. Back to you in the pits."

"What a creep!" Tess yelled causing everybody to give a nod. Mar grabbed Tess' shirt and held his arms up to be picked up. "Aw, you wanna be held?" the little boy gave a nod. "What have I said about using words…" she giggled as he rolled his eyes at her. Jak looked over at Mar and smiled. Tess and Keira had helped a bunch in getting Mar to break out of his shell. He loved being held by one of the two girls. It was strange, but out of everybody Sig was the only one that Mar stayed away from. The wastelander no longer wore his armor, except for the top pads. He did however still wear outfit that looked handmade.

"Hey guys!" Keira yelled as she ran into their shared apartment loft, in her hands were the next week racing schedules. "Better pack, we're heading into the wastes this week. Brand spankin' new race tracks have been built within the last two weeks out there and in some city called Spargus City too!" as she said the last part Sig suddenly began coughing.

"What!?" he asked as soon as he stopped coughing on his drink. She handed him the schedules, which allowed him to confirm that yes she was right. _Kleiver_. he thought this had the battlemaster's stink all over it. "Well I'll be…"

"Oh boy, I better pack my weapons." Daxter said out loud as he sat down a car part in front of Keira who suddenly gasped.

"Daxter!" she cried out. "What happened to your duel fuel connectors?"

"Eh, I think Shiv's rockets got me once too many times." He grunted as he sat down next to Tess who had Mar in her lap and sound cards in her hands.

"Oh Daxie, did my wiskerpuss get his baby blown up?" she cooed at him until she saw his grease stained hands. "Oh baby; I think you forgot to clean your hands again." She pointed out, causing Mar to laugh loudly.

Daxter looked over at Jak who smiled. The boy was learning that he didn't need to be silent anymore, that it was safe to laugh, play and get cuddled on by girls. "Eh, not a big problem." He shrugged as he stood back up.

"When are the first races this week, Sig?" Jak asked as he walked over to his friend who was still looking over the schedule.

"Tomorrow afternoon." Sig said glumly.

"Will the Javalin X be ready by then?" he asked looking at Keira as she walked over to him.

"Yep, so will the Havoc V12; which," as she looked at Sig, "will no longer skid around any dirt arena track." The big man smiled and gave her a thumbs up. "Tess your Anvil RTX is finished too. I saw Daxter working on his Street Grinder today before he brought that in from that monster Hammer Head of his." She shook her head.

"Now Cherries," Sig began as Daxter walked back in and showed his now clean hands to Tess. "There's something you guys need to know." Everybody suddenly gave Sig their undivided attention. "There's some rules to Spargus City that you guys must follow, otherwise you'll be thrown out." Everybody nodded. "Now, one of them in no killing any of its residents."

"That shouldn't be too hard." Jak smiled at the big guy.

"For you, it may." Sig gave Jak a friendly glare.

"That was one time, and Dax stopped me from going _Dark_." He shrugged wanting to suddenly stop this conversation.

"You put Razer in the medical ward." Sig said "Now Mizo's team wants our asses."

"One slip up in three months." Jak defended himself. "Besides, he was trying to kill my best friend!"

"It doesn't matter." Sig said softly, "Now, promise me Cherry…"

"Alright!" Jak raised his hands up in a defensive manner.

"Good." He looked at the rest of the group. "Now onto the second part, this one is bit harder. The King is, kind of a friend; but I haven't reported in to him in over half a year. He may show up and when he does you," he pointed at Jak, "keep yourself and lil' Mar out of his site until I've had my chance to explain things to him. Got it?" Jak nodded, though not understanding that rule. "Good. Oh and watch out for a big guy named Kleiver, you may not know who he is; but you'll smell him a mile away."

"Got it." Jak nodded, as did everybody else as they each went their separate ways to pack for the trip.

* * *

**Location**: _Spargus City_

Damas looked over the tracks that were set up around the outer perimeter of Spargus and the one that went right through the city, thankfully it was in a section of the city that not many people lived. It was here that a few building were being rented out for the two weeks that the races were in the city. As it turned out, he wasn't too upset at Kleiver for the sheer sizes of each race track. What did worry him was the track that went too close to the volcano and through it. He wasn't sure if that one was even safe. It was on his tour through the track going through the city that he heard a familiar voice. "Cherry get yer ass movin'." Turning he saw Sig yelling at a yellow and red haired man, who seemed to have a bucked tooth problem.

"I'm a movin' Sig!" the youth yelled back at the big man who shook his head and mumbled something unintelligent and walked away from him towards one of the homes that were being rented out to the racers.

"Eh, what's his problem anys ways, it's not like anybody is up at the Precursor forsaken hour?" the youth asked somebody who was still in the transporter that they were unloading.

"I don't know Dax," came the reply as the unknown suddenly jumped out of the vehicle and walked out from behind his friend. Damas' eyes widened as he saw the second young man. He bore a striking resemblance to his late wife.

"Jak!" came a feminine voice from across the track from the house Sig had vanished into.

The youth that Damas had been looking at, the one that looked like his beloved wife turned his face towards the woman whose voice had caught his attention. "Just a second Tess!" he yelled back.

"Should I be worried that my girl is calling your name?" the red head asked as they approached the house.

All Damas heard was a laugh before the reply came the door shut behind them. _It can't be_. he thought, but the more he tried to deny it, the more he couldn't remove the sinking feeling that he had finally been wrong on something. _Just…maybe. _was his last thought before he banished it. One thing was for certain. Before the races were over in Spargus, he was going to have his answer; whether that answer was the one he wanted to hear or not, was up to him.

* * *

**M-Angel**: Yay, I think I'm fixing what I've done to our poor hero, hopefully. I know I kinda left Damas wondering what the heck is going on and all, but things will get better; before they get worse. hehehe... Jak _does_ have a destiny, but that destiny is going to be turned upside down, shaken up and then what's left standing will get sortted out later. LoL. I think I've been a bit hard on Ashelin and Torn. I may help them out and then again I may just have them and the rest of Haven get burnt to the ground.


	6. Chapter 6: The Unbalance

**Chapter 6**: _The Unbalance_

* * *

**Location**: _Haven City_

The old soothsayer Onin meditated as she always did; trying to sense the young heir and where he was in the world; however with two in existence it wasn't very hard to do. Her milky white blind eyes continued to stare into nothingness. Jak or Mar were not in danger…yet. The two were one and the same. Young Mar was learning very quickly how to do things by himself and was getting attached to his new friends; especially Jak. As for Jak, he was too busy becoming the best racer in existence. He's already defeated many of the standing champions; but this future that he was building for himself was not what he was suppose to be doing. This was not the future she'd seen when she met the anger young man only a year ago. No, this was an uncertain future.

Suddenly a vision hit her so hard it made her gasp with its intensity. In her mind she saw darkness spreading, not in the future; but the past. Something young Mar was supposed to do to ensure the world would be safe. She also saw the young warrior Mar being killed and the line of Mar being destroyed forever because of this darkness. Looking deeper into this vision she saw two people with pale skin standing over a Precursor robot and opening the dark eco wells! These two people were laughing maniacally until suddenly they screamed in horror at what they'd done and saw themselves being twisted into monsters. Then just as suddenly the vision ended.

Onin shook herself to get rid of the deep and uneasy feeling she suddenly had. Looking forward she could sense her familiar nearby and promptly told him to get the Haven officials and both Samos' here pronto.

* * *

Ashelin and Torn looked at Onin as she finished telling them and the twin Samos' what had happened. "This is grave news." The older Samos said. "We must find Jak and get him to send Mar back; otherwise Haven City will never exist."

"Wait, Mar?" Torn asked. "You mean to tell me that LJ is Mar, the Mar?"

"No, of course not." Younger Samos said not sounding amused. "Damas called his son Mar after his ancestor."

"Yes, that's true." Older Samos said, "But, young Mar and Jak are actually one and the same."

"WHAT!?" both Ashelin and Torn yelled causing the older members of the group to wince. "Okay, so Jak is Prince Mar, who was to be sent back in time to-"Ashelin looked at the older Sage.

"Sandover Village." He paused as he saw everybody freeze. "And yes, it's the same Sandover where Kor and his kind will one day destroy. The citizens will not all perish, most lived and joined Mar, who lead them into victory over the metal heads and with his channeling powers held off the myriad of metal head armies while the people built the Haven City wall. He would later return to the city with Precursor tech which would be the foundation of information that he'd use to make the shield, the generators, holographic displays and even our weapon systems."

"So without Jak growing up in Sandover?" Torn asked

"If Jak doesn't send his younger self into the past and if my younger self doesn't go as well;" older Samos gave a sad sigh. "Young Jak won't meet a young Daxter and I won't have my daughter Keira. Daxter will never grow up with Jak. Instead he will grow up and never go to Misty Island and without Jak there neither will go on their journey to the North to Gol and Maia's citadel and they will never discover that the two Dark Sages are going to open the damn Silo's." he shook his head. "The silos will open and they will flood the world with their darkness. All Elvin life will come to an abrupt end!"

"Shit." Torn cursed. "Well where are they?"

As Ashelin went to open a comm. link to Freedom HQ Onin's hands lit up as she began to speak. Pecker looked at her; his eyes widening. "Onin says that Jak and his friends have joined the Kras City Racing Circuit and is currently in the winning standings." He paused as her hands continued to rapidly fly through the air. "She also says that right now they're in Spargus City; which is a tough Wasteland city that's ruled by…WHAT!" his eyes winded. "HE'S ALIVE!"

"Who?" Ashelin asked as she approached the seer.

"Damas!" Pecker squawked. "He's alive!" he turned to Onin. "She says that King Damas is currently hosting the racing games and in the end the winner will have the choice of trying out for citizenship of Spargus. She says she sees danger for both Jak and Damas in the very near future. Both from themselves and an outside entity; somebody we all thought was dead, but is in fact very much alive."

"Who?!" Torn demanded, causing Pecker to flinch.

"Erol." The monkaw replied causing everybody to go silent.

* * *

**Location**: _Spargus City_

Jak look outside the window of his vehicle as the first race got on the way. He could see Keira in the pits with Mar. The jumbotron overhead had G.T. counting down and all soon as the annoying man said one he was off. He saw ahead of him a group of blue eco balls and hit them immediately and zoomed past everybody. "Right behind you Cherry." He could hear Sig in his ear piece and smiled.

"Not for long!" Daxter yelled, "Orange Lightning coming through."

Jak watched as his best friend and he were now tied for first. He then saw a red eco blob ahead and grabbed it with his car, which activated the eco generator in the back and suddenly he had mines. Smiling he pressed the turbo button and flew past Daxter, and nabbed another blob of eco, this one of yellow eco, which activated the eco generator again, this time for the front and now he had missiles. He continued to pick up blue balls of eco and spat out his mines as he saw another red blob ahead and turboed again towards it. As he turned the bend around the area that went by the water he saw that the red eco had given him a shield. He then heard Sig gasp as he was hit in the back and was taken out of the race as his back axel was taken out completely. "Keira!" he heard Sig yell and turned off his link with Sig.

"Dax, Sig's out!" he yelled towards his friend through the link.

"Grreat!" he heard a sarcastic reply. "It was UR-86 I bet!" the poor red head hated that robot. It reminded him of all those times as an ottsel that he had to run past those death bots in the Fortress while he was trying to find Jak and get his best buddy out of prison.

Jak came up to the finish line and smiled as a ding went off in his car, telling him and that there was one lap left.

* * *

Damas grimaced when Sig's vehicle was taken out and the back end of his race car was in flames. Thankfully the big man got out safely just as he young woman came out quickly and the two of them got the downed car out of the way as round two began of the race. He could see the cameras everywhere and the jumbotron over head showed that Jak was still in front. Just then a peacemaker round was shot off by not one, but three cars. That would certainly take out Jak vehicle; but Jak seemed to know as his eyes left the track only and then return and he smirked. Just as the first peacemaker went in for the kill, a shield popped up and the crowds went wild. The entire track vibrated with the cheers and Damas couldn't help but smile himself as Jak crossed the finish line in first followed by the loudmouth red head Daxter.

Upon standing he exited the track for the pits to talk to Sig, only to find the large man waiting for him outside his box seat. "Sig." he greeted. "Where's Mar?"

Damas could see the man shake his head. "You still don't see it do you?" Sig sighed.

"I know you want me to believe that story," he could see Sig was about to say something. "but it's too impossible."

"Have it your way." Sig shrugged and turned to leave and then looked at his King. "You coming Lordship?" he asked sounding slightly miffed.

Damas followed silently behind.

As they approached the parking garage they could hear celebrations from inside. Suddenly Daxter rounded the corner and saw Sig with a strange guy and suddenly had a very bad feeling. "Uh, guys." He said, "Sig's got a friend with him."

Jak grabbed Mar and ran into the side room; Keira shut the door behind him. Jak sat Mar down on the couch and went over to a locker where he had his morph gun and grabbed it. Placing his pointer finger to his lips for Mar to be quiet, the boy nodded and crawled behind the couch with Mutt suddenly lifting his head off of the carpet and run off towards Mar, who shushed his pet.

Outside Daxter grabbed his pistols and hid 'em on his person on the back of his pants. Keira grabbed a crowbar and Tess suddenly found her dagger interesting as she played with it as Sig entered the building with Damas beside him. "Hi'ya Sig!" Daxter said as he leaned against his car. "You crashed and burned man!" he said sounding like there was laughter behind his voice.

Sig nodded. "Where's Jak?" he asked

"Pro'lly getting' his trophy." Daxter grunted as he scratched his chin and lifted his head a bit higher as one eye drifted to the door to the other room.

Sig saw the signal. _Hiding like I told him._ "Then we'll wait." Damas said as he walked past Sig and into the garage. He wasn't dumb, he saw the weapons the two girls were handling and saw the pistol that the red head was trying to hide on his back that was hidden by his racing jacket. Then there was the obvious door in the corner or the room. It was then very obvious that they were standing in front of the door and that was probably where Mar was being hidden.

"Jak's a good kid. You'll him." Sig assured Damas, his signal to Jak to come out.

Meanwhile on the inside Jak snuck outside a window, after putting the strap of his gun around his shoulder. Dropping down he walked back around the front and walked up behind Sig. "Sig." he greeted, causing both Wastelanders to turn around. "Was wonderin' where you went off to." He snickered. "Who got you?"

Sig groaned. "That bucket of bolts."

Jak looked at Daxter who began snickering. "Really Sig? A robot beat you?"

"Shut it Cherry." Jak smirked as he spotted the older man and felt his breath catch as he recognized this man from a memory he'd had a few months back when they'd been still living in Haven City. "This is…"

"King Damas." Jak breathed his eyes wide.

"Have we met boy?" Damas asked as he eyed the young man. Bright blue eyes starred wide at him, greenish blonde hair a testament of days spent in the sun and being bleached by its rays.

"Sortta." Jak replied. "Can I speak to Sig for a moment?" Damas gave a nod as he turned back towards Jak's friends who were still standing in front of the door.

"What is it Jak?" Sig had seen Jak's reaction to meeting the king of the wastelanders and now was curious.

"You never said your friend was my Dad." Jak said quietly, not wanting Damas to overhear them.

"So you remember him?" Sig questioned as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yeah." Jak replied as he scratched behind his neck and looked at Damas who was starring a hole into the door. "I think Mar should see his Dad."

"Think the kid will remember?" Sig asked not wanting to force this. It had to be Jaks decision.

"I don't know." Jak said almost too quietly. It was then that he heard a whine and could see Mutt's nose under the door.

"Jak, the dog is gonna rip the door off." Daxter complained. "Oh! You promised to take me to the markets after the race, so don't you-"

"I haven't forgotten Dax," he walked over to the door. "Mutt probably just has to go out." He cracked the door which allowed Mutt to run out; but instead of going to Jak the coca dog ran directly to Damas and knocked the king on his ass and proceeded to slob the man up from chin to hairline.

Damas burst out laughing. "Down boy!" he ordered but was completely ignored by the wiggling beast who was happy to see the king.

"Mutt!" Jak cried out as he closed the door, but not all the way. "Get off of him boy!" Jak grabbed Mutt by his collar. "Bad Mutt." Jak scolded the coca dog.

Suddenly a high pitch cry was heard from the door. Jak and Damas turned to see Mar standing there. His jaw dropped and eyes wide.

"Mar." Damas whispered softly and approached the young boy. "Do you…Do you remember me, son?"

Mar's eyes went from his father to Jak and then back, he gave a slow nod and almost too soft to be heard he spoke one word. "D-D-D-Daddy." He stuttered as he walked past the door and into his father's awaiting arms.

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Daxter yelled and then pointed from Damas to Jak and the back. "You're Mar's Daddy? Then does that…" he looked at Jak when suddenly a squawk was heard by everybody and a very tired looking Pecker landed on Daxter's car. "OH NO, NOT YOU!" Daxter screamed at the familiar.

"Shut it rat-boy!" Pecker yelled. "Sorry to intrude, but Jak; we have a major problem."

Damas stood up with his son in his arms. "What kind of problem?" Jak asked as he watched his father.

"Oh, I don't know…how about WORLD ENDING!" he yelled. "You keeping your younger self in the time instead of sending him back in time is upsetting the balance of the world!"

Damas' arms tightened on Mar, who gave a cry of protest. "What is the meaning of this?" he yelled.

"Quick review for you your majesty." Pecker began but was interrupted by Tess.

"Jak and Mar are one and the same." She said and as she was about to continue Daxter interrupted her. "Jak stopped Mar from opening the Precursor Stone and then stopped him from going through the rift gate in the metal head leaders nest."

"I couldn't let him go through the pain I went through." Jak said sadly as those pain filled memories surfaced.

**'****Without them though you wouldn't be who you are. **_'Dark_ said as he appeared in Jaks mind only to be ignored by the hero.

"As admirable as that is; you," Pecker pointed at Jak as he continued, "have to send him through the rift gate, otherwise Gol and Maia Acheron will open the silos in the past thus flooding the world with dark eco. This will not only kill off the young warrior Mar; and your own line, but will kill every Elf on this planet at that time or would ever be born."

Everybody was stock still. "I-"Jak looked at his younger self. "I just wanted to protect him. He deserved better than what I got." He looked at Daxter. "Everything was fine until we returned to Haven. Once he returns; "he looked at his own hands. "he'll be tortured by Praxis for two years with dark eco; he'll be turned into a weapon, a tool."

Daxter's ears fell back a bit. "Yeah, but he'll also be the one to kill his mother's killer and kill the metal head leader and will become a kickass hero." Sig said with a smile. "Now Cherry, I ain't for takin' a man's kid away; but…" he looked at Damas who nodded. "I think the kid has to go."

Walking over to Jak, Damas handed him Mar."Take him." Damas said as he pulled away. "Then come back to Spargus, it's where you belong son."

* * *

**M-Angel**: Yes, I'm letting Damas say good-bye to his son. *sniffle*


	7. Chapter 7: The Return

**Chapter 7**: _The Return_

* * *

**Location**: _Haven City_

When Jak returned to Haven City with little Mar walking next to him he was expecting somebody, anybody to challenge him and try and take the young heir, though should've known that most people just didn't care about him; that it was just the council and their people who hated him; not the average Joe; but that still didn't mean somebody couldn't be paid to do something they usually wouldn't have done

So once he'd walked into the city with his friends behind him, he made his way to the Palace where he found Ashelin and Torn arguing with a certain bald councilman. "YOU!" Vegar growled, "What are you doing here!" as he said this he spotted little Mar; who recognized the balding man right away.

Jak turned towards Sig and spoke. "Was your job just to bring me back to my father?" he asked the older man who thought for a moment.

"Well, not just that." He stated. "I was also suppose to find and kill the man responsible for taking you or bring him in for punishment by your father." He looked at Jak and then at the fuming man in front of them. "Why?"

Jak smiled as he turned back towards Vegar. "Hello Vegar," he said in a very deep voice that reminded everyone of his alter ego. "I don't think you've ever met my friend Sig here." He gestured to the Wastelander as he took several steps towards the councilman. "You see Sig here follows order by his king, who just happens to be Mar's father, Damas." Vegar's eyes widened. "Sig, Vegar here is the one who took Mar from his father." The wastelander gave a grunt in acknowledgment.

"Y-You have no proof." He stuttered as Sig approached the balding man.

"That's where you're wrong." He smiled, "I won't go into too many details, but let's just say Mar told me."

"Not only that, but we have my father's journals which speak of you being the one behind everything, including the Queen's death." She paused as she grabbed the staff in Vegar's hand and pressed the little button on the top causing a small needle to poke out. "How much you wanna bet this'll have the poison that killed the Queen in it."

Sig grabbed the squirming man and picked him up by the collar of his expensive jacket. "You and I have date with the King, shorty." with that he went to leave but paused by Jak as he passed him. "Call me when you're ready to come back Chilipepper."

Jak nodded. "I will when we get on the transporter Sig." and watched the man take Vegar, who was yelling obscenities, out of the room.

"That's one way of taking out the trash." Daxter joked as he turned back to Ashelin and Torn.

"Look Jak, we owe you and apology." She walked over to him and looked at Daxter. "and to you too Daxter. Without you two this city would still be under my father's control and Kor would still be alive and…"

"Hey," Jak touched her shoulder causing her to look up at him. "I forgive you." He rolled his shoulders. "It's kinda what Dax and I do. Besides we needed to leave for a little while and get control of ourselves." He smiled at Ashelin. "As much as I like to race, I love killing metal heads too and on the way in we killed a few dozen. Looks like you could use the Demolition Duo again."

Ashelin looked over at Torn, whose eyebrows rose up a bit. "Yeah," he said "we could. You'll be paid whatever your price is."

"Really?" Daxter asked unbelievingly. "Yer going ta pay us whatever we say?"

Torn looked at Ashelin, who nodded. "Yes." he replied.

Looking at Jak, Daxter smiled. "I could roll with that." He said smiling. "First though…"

"We've got to get Mar through time." Jak finished, "The Rift Gate is buried."

"Not so my boy!" came older Samos' voice from behind them. Upon turning around Samos spotted his daughter. "Keira my child, you look wonderful!"

Keria smiled. "That's Dad." She said this causing Samos' eyes to widen.

"You've grown so much in the last six months." He would've continued if he hadn't been interrupted by the look Jak was giving him. "Right." He walked to the front of the group. "We were able to find the Rift Gate and move it to the cavern inside Mar's tomb."

"Mar's tomb?" Jak asked with curiosity ebbing his voice.

"Yes, I thought it would be safer there." Samos said with a nod. "The rider is already in place. All we're waiting for is the heir now." The older man looked down at young Mar and then at Jak. "Are you ready son?"

The boy looked at Jak and then back at Samos. Jak could see Mar's hesitation. "You need to go." He said. "Oh and a word of advice, stay away from wumpbee nests on your ninth birthday." He could hear Daxter and Keira chuckling as his ears fell a bit. "No matter what a red hair boy says, stay away from them." As he said this Mar took out a necklace he'd been wearing this whole time and handed it to Jak before taking Samos' hand and leaving with the older man.

Looking down at the necklace Jak took the pendant off of the rope and put it in his pocket and turned towards Ashelin and Torn. "The races end next week in Spargus, afterwards I'll return." He promised as he turned and left. Daxter and Keira close behind him.

As soon as they left the palace they spotted Tess. "So where are we going now?" Daxter asked as they headed towards the transporter.

"Spargus." Jak said. "I've got a trophy to win!" he said this with some enthusiasm and smiled at Daxter. "Race you." With that he took off on foot towards the port.

"Hey!" Daxter yelled after him and took off in a sprint.

Tess and Keira looked as the two boys took off running. "Speeder or two-seater?" Tess asked with a giggle.

"Either way we'd beat them." Keira answered with a laugh as the two grabbed a speeder bike and took off towards the port.

* * *

**Location**: _Spargus City_

Damas watched as Vegar's beaten body was drug out from his sight. Looking over towards Sig he sighed. "Thank-you Sig." as he spoke he rubbed his knuckles which now hurt from punching the snot out of the councilman.

"What'll happen to him?" he asked as he watched Kleiver disappear with the unconscious man.

"Knowing Kleiver he'll sell him to the Marauders." He sat down on the throne. "To tell the truth I could care less what happens to him." He smiled, "I just hope he gets what's coming to him." He then looked at Sig. "Now, as for Jak." He saw Sig go stiff. "I believe you know and should've before. I took Onin's familiar for me to believe what I'd already been told." He shook his head. "I apologize Sig."

"I takes a big man to admit that he's wrong." Sig said with a crooked grin appearing on his visage. "Good thing you're the bigger guy."

Damas laughed. "True." He stood and grabbed his staff weapon. "Now, let's talk about these racing games…" he began as they left the room by using the elevator and going down to the main street.

* * *

**Location**: _Unknown_

Mar looked around himself and saw trees of all shapes and sizes. The breeze smelt like salt and wet. There were bugs on the ground and the ground itself was soft, warm and fluffy. He sat down on the ground and wiggled his toes into the sand. Turning his head he looked over at the green man with the weird hair. He was always bossing people around and scared Mar, but the guy that looked like him; Jak, said he was a good guy and Jak would never lie to him…would he?

Suddenly he heard a noise and quickly stood up and ran over to Samos. Poking his head around the green man he saw a red hair buck tooth boy. "Hiya, I'm Daxter, who ar' you weirdoes?" Samos began sputtering at the little red haired boy, but Mar smiled and since this was a place he was going to be starting over like the other green guy said he decided to do something he'd never done very well before and spoke. "Jak." He said as he pointed to himself and smiled as Samos looked at him weirdly.

"I'm Samos Hagai, the Green Sage.

"Like the blue guy in Rock Village." Daxter said putting two and two together.

"Blue guy?" Samos inquired.

"Yeah, I think he's called the Blue Sage, only yer the Green one." He said with a smile and began to lead the two back to the village he'd come. "By the way, this Sandover Village yer in." he turned around and walked backwards. "Where'd ya come from?"

"Far away." Samos said, "Where's the authorities of this village."

"Auhtorit-?" Daxter began, "Oh! Ya me the Major?" he asked causing the green man to nod. "Right there." He said pointing to a windmill type house. He walked up to Jak, "YA wanna play?"

Mar blinked and nodded enthusiastically and ran off after the red haired boy. As Samos watched this scene unfold he remembered what his older self had asked of him.

"_Don't be too hard on Daxter," said his older self as he looked at the rift rider. "You'll probably arrive near Sandover, so hide the rider nearby and when you find Gol, ask him to keep the rider at his citadel and if he asks what it is, tell him you have no idea and want to study it later; but under no circumstance should it be used until you figure out what it does."_

"_So lie." He said to his older self._

"_Yes." the elder said with a nod. "It's a necessary lie, but in ten years your time you'll come for it." he nodded. "OH!" the elder yelled as he got onto the rift. "In no certain terms is Mar or Daxter to go near Misty Island. Try to keep them away at all costs." He paused. "Eventually when Mar turns sixteen they'll make their way there, but until then…"_

"_I get it." he said as Mar sat down next to him. "Ready child?" the boy nodded. "Then let's go." and with that they flew off into the Precursorean rings._

Samos smiled as he watched the two boys play and laugh as suddenly Mar, who now called himself Jak, jumped onto Daxter who squealed as he was caught by his new friend. Samos turned in time to see a red haired couple walking towards them. Daxter spotted them. "Mama, Papa!" he yelled and dragged Jak over to them. A short man standing next to them smiled down at the boys. "Uncle!" Daxter yelled. "This is Jak." He said with a wide smile on his face and his eyes twinkling.

The woman and man smiled down at their son. "Hello Jak." The woman said as she wretch down towards him and picked him up. "Aren't you a friendly little guy." She giggled as Jak hugged her back.

"Mama, he's my friend!" Daxter complained as his mother sat Jak back on the ground.

"And you are?" the man asked as he spotted Samos.

Samos was about to answer, but was interrupted by Daxter. "That's Samos Hag-Hag-" the boy paused and then decided to just give the short name. "Samos the Sage." He said and turned back towards Jak. "Wanna see my shell collection?" Jak nodded and as the two began to go down to Daxter's home Daxter looked at the green haired boy. "Ya know, yer not talkative, ar' ya?" Jak shook his head. "That's okay. I talk enough for the both of us." he then went silent for a moment. "Ya wanna be my friend?" Jak blinked and then nodded causing the red haired boy to squeal with joy and thus a friendship began that would enduring for all time and legends would be born from.

* * *

**M-Angel**: Wow, I finished that story pretty quickly. So, what'd ya'll think? I'm thinking of a sequel, but first I'm going to do another story that once again lady-darkstreak has inspired. Yes, it'll be another AU; so be on the lookout for it. :)


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